


Crisis

by UninhibitedImagination



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UninhibitedImagination/pseuds/UninhibitedImagination
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Clarke is in her first year of residence, Lexa is a patient with a redacted patient history, a blizzard is striking, and there's a threat inside the hospital; what will transpire when the Crisis strikes?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just Another Monday

The bitter January air stole the breath from Clarke’s lungs. The walk to the hospital was only a few blocks, but with the frigid air the walk felt like miles. Clarke grabbed the lapels of her jacket and pulled them closer to her face, she tucked her chin deeper into her wool scarf, and hitched up the strap of her duffle on her shoulder. As she turned the corner an ambulance rushed past her, sirens blaring, another day of emergency medicine, another day of blood, tragedy, and tears, another day for her to forget about Finn and lose herself in work.

It had only been a month since Finn had been ejected from the residency program, and six weeks since their relationship had ended. Clarke knew she had rushed into the relationship with Finn. They were under immense pressure, finishing their fourth year of medical school and matching for residency. The stress and constant hours spent together made the relationship easy to start, and easy to continue. It was not until they matched with different hospitals and began to spend more time apart than together, that Clarke began to experience Finn’s obsessive side. He would constantly call, text, or randomly visit while she was working. When she wasn’t working he wanted to know where she was, he would show up at the gym to surprise her, walk her home, and stay the night, presuming it was always welcomed and wanted. Clarke had ended the relationship the day Finn left his shift at Mercy hospital to visit her during her shift at Johns Hopkins. She could not risk her residency, she had to choose and her future was more important than her troubled relationship.

The doors to the emergency room parted, greeting Clarke with a world of chaos. Surely her next forty-eight hours would be busy. She walked into the locker room where the residents ending their shifts were waiting to pass patient charts. As she slipped off her jacket and stuffed her bag into her locker, her fellow residents began chirping details at her. 

“And this one, Jesus, I think this lady has a death wish. This is the third time within the last few months this lady has been in with a gunshot wound of mysterious origin.”

The oddly judgmental patient summary alerted Clarke from her groggy state, “Wait, what.” 

“Sorry, it’s just this patient will give us no information, when she arrived there was already a patient file for her, but there were previous report pages missing all over the place, notes blacked out. This is an odd one, just treat and release, don’t invest any time with her, it seems to be pretty pointless, she’ll be back in a month with another broken bone, or bullet hole.” 

“Well Dr. Jaha, that’s rather judgmental of you. Our job is to treat the patient not judge them for their illness or injury.” 

“Clarke, come on, I’ve been working for forty-eight hours straight and this patient has been a pain in my ass, good luck with this one, you’re going to need it.”  
“Get some sleep Wells, and when you come back, just remember there will always be pain in the ass patients, and we need to always treat them with respect and dignity, we do not know their past.” 

“I know Clarke, just, you’ll see. Enjoy your forty-eight.”

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The residents had switched to their forty-eight-hour swing shifts a month ago, and everyone had been on edge since. While the shift allowed them more opportunity to see patients throughout the treatment process, it also limited their sleeping, eating, and general wellbeing. 

Clarke sat down on the aged bench in the resident’s locker room, she wondered how many residents had come and gone, how many had sat on this bench emotionally exhausted after losing another patient, how many had to change their scrubs after delivering an unexpectedly eager baby. Knowing she had no time to waste, she quickly untied the laces of her boots, slipped them off and exchanged them for a pair of comfortable tennis shoes. Clarke’s mother was always one to pass on advice, her best advice was to invest in a good pair of tennis shoes, and to buy multiple pairs. She retrieved her white coat from her locker as she walked out of the locker room with an arm full of patient charts. 

After quickly organizing her charts she went to see the first patient. A young mother sat in the room with her wailing baby. Respiratory illness ran rampant in the winter and it appeared another little one had become a victim. She listened to the infant’s lungs, hoping she wouldn’t hear the congested wheezing, a key indicator of a respiratory illness; unfortunately, her hopes would not be realized with this patient. After listening to the struggled breathing of the fluid filled lungs and reading the reported temperatures on the chart, she ordered a chest x-ray to confirm the diagnosis.

“Ms. Sanders, your son’s lungs are filled with fluid. I’m going to order a chest x-ray just so we know what we are up against and I’m also going to be admitting him, I’ll have a nurse come in shortly to start some antibiotics. We’ll be moving Luke to the children’s wing, he will be in isolation as these respiratory viruses are highly contagious. The floor nurses will show you the protocol. They are fantastic up there, you and Luke will be treated with the utmost care. They’ll move you within the hour. If you need anything or have any questions, please have the nurses page me. Do you have any questions now?”

A gentle head shake was the only response she received. Clarke could see the tears filling the young woman’s eyes, she had seen this countless times, parents never responded well to their children being ill.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As she read the next chart she couldn’t help but roll her eyes and then scold herself for judging the patient. New Year’s had been over a month ago, she thought by now the firework related injuries would reduce until just before Independence Day. To be fair the number of firework related injuries was far less than the twenty she had on New Year’s Eve night. This time it was a sixteen-year-old boy who had decided to have a shooting contest with a Roman Candle. The chart indicated he had several burns on his back and hands. 

As she continued to read the patient’s stats her gaze caught the sight of a poised woman in curtain three. She was sitting there, with a fairly expressionless face staring across the hospital, holding a cloth to her arm with blood seeping through. While Clarke stood a considerable distance away, she could not help but feel drawn to the intense stare.

“I cannot believe you are this fucking stupid. How many times have I told you to not just do whatever your dumbass friends are doing? I’m telling you here and now you little asshole, I will not take any more of these shenanigans. I’m fucking done with this shit.”

Clarke was pulled away from her awkward staring by the sounds of a boisterous voice. She walked into room fifteen to see a large man, standing over a small framed boy. The boy had recoiled as the man raised his hand, before she could think Clarke positioned herself between the man and the boy, the top of her head barely reaching the man’s shoulders but nonetheless her presence stopped him in his tracks.

“Excuse me sir, but I’m going to need you to leave the room.”

“The hell I will, I don’t know who you think you are but this is my fucking idiot of a son and I ain’t going nowhere.”

“Sir, I will not have my patients subjected to or threatened with physical violence. So I’m going to ask you again to please leave this room or I will have you escorted out. The choice is yours.”

“What the fuck. Seriously who the fuck are you. I’m not going to let some nurse tell me how I will treat my fucking son.”

With an overly assertive push the man shoved his way around Clarke and reached his arm back to continue the tormenting of his son. With a quick motion Clarke secured the man’s arm twisting it into a precarious position and slamming him to the floor taking a hospital tray and empty IV pole as he went. The sound of the crashing supplies brought people running. From orderlies, to nurses, to her attending physician, she was quickly surrounded by surprised individuals, surely they did not often see a five foot five, hundred and forty-pound woman maintaining a position of dominance of a six foot six, two hundred and eighty-five-pound man.

“Dr. Griffin, may I ask why you have accosted this man?” With a presumptuous tone Clarke’s attending physician questioned her actions.

Without letting go of the burly and clearly embarrassed man Clarke explained her reasoning in an even and conclusory tone. “Mr. Moore decided it was a good idea to beat his injured son, I advised him against such actions and he elected to ignore my advice, so I elected to protect my patient.” She knew she had done the right thing and she would not have her motives questioned. 

Clarke released the man’s arm and stood, once freed, the man stood awkwardly rubbing his shoulder, “Call the police, I’m pressing charges against this woman, she assaulted me.”

“We will certainly be calling the police. We will be reporting an incident of child abuse and the proper term is a battery sir, not an assault. And I’m sure the police will rule it justified as a self-defense on behalf of a third party.” Kane had appeared from nowhere, his authoritative tone quickly calmed the situation. Clarke was grateful to have a hospital administrator who supported his physicians.

“This is fucking ridiculous. My son and I are leaving, what a fucking joke of a hospital.”

“Sir, respectfully, you will not be leaving with your son. We have admitted him, he will be taken to the burn unit shortly, and Officer Blake is here to deal with you.”

“Mr. Moore you’re under arrest for child endangerment, attempted child abuse, and interfering with medical treatment. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to you.” Officer Blake asserted herself with confidence as she read Mr. Moore his rights. 

“You’ve got to fucking kidding me, I’m assaulted and you’re arresting me. Are you fucking out of your mind, or are all you women fucking menstruating, men hating lesbians? What the fuck?” 

“Sir, I’ll gladly add resisting arrest to the list of charges if you’d like.” Officer Blake heard these kinds of accusations far too often and her patience for them had worn far too thin.

Realizing he had lost the battle Mr. Moore turned around and allowed himself to be handcuffed, “This is not over mother fuckers, I will be back, I will be taking my son home and all of you sons a bitches will fucking pay.”

“We will contact the boy’s mother regarding his medical needs. We wish you the best sir, and if you decide to enroll in anger management classes and sensitivity counseling, the hospital offers both of those services, which your insurance will cover” Kane’s diplomatic response to the outlandish threat was impressive. No matter how unruly situations became, Kane always maintained a diplomatic presence. 

Clarke passed the patient chart to the nurse from the burn unit, there was no need to provide treatment in the emergency room as the child clearly needed burn treatment. After collecting herself Clarke looked at the next patient file, she was only an hour into her shift and was already tiring of the drama she had encountered. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her next patient was waiting in curtain three. As she read the file she found large amounts of information had been redacted from the medical file. Admittedly Clarke had only been a resident for a short time, but she had never encountered a medical file with redacted information, to properly treat a patient it was critical for her to have a complete medical history, how was she to do that when the majority of the history had been blackened out. Previous injuries gone, medications gone, allergies gone, all personal information gone, Clarke only knew the patient’s current injury, blood pressure, weight, and first name. This may very well be the oddest patient file she had ever seen, even in practice cases in medical school she was supplied with more information.

“Good morning, uh, Lexa. I apologize for your wait, let’s take a look at your injury.” Clarke felt awkward. From the moment she had walked past curtain three she had felt pulled towards the patient, and now, looking into those piercing green eyes she felt uneasy. 

“No need to apologize doctor, I’ve never experienced such an exciting show while waiting to see a doctor. I must say you handled yourself quite well. I thought about going over there to provide assistance but then you just, handled it.”

Clarke’s cheeks blushed at the odd compliment. “Well, I’m glad we could make your wait a bit more entertaining.” Lexa removed the clothe from her arm, staring into Clarke’s eyes. Clarke examined the wound, trying to not be distracted by Lexa’s gaze. As she examined the wound she could see it was a through and through bullet wound by a small caliber handgun, luckily the bullet had caused very little damage to the patient’s arm. 

“So Lexa, a few inches to the right this bullet would have hit you in the heart, how did you come by this injury?” Clarke tried to fill in the gaps in the medical record. She noticed bruises on the woman’s arm, and legs thanks to the short hospital gown cloaking her. Clearly this woman was encountering some form of violence in her life, did Clarke need to intervene to protect this woman, was the question she was left asking herself.

Lexa shifted her gaze from Clarke’s bright blue eyes to her white doctor’s coat, “I appreciate your concern Doctor Griffin, honestly my line of work gets a bit hectic is all, I’m sure you understand that considering what just happened across the way.”

Clarke knew the patient was hiding something and she knew she had to do something, even if it was only a temporary fix. “Lexa I’m going to clean your wound and stitch it up, but I am concerned about infection and nerve damage as it appears it’s been a while since the time the injury occurred and treatment was rendered. Because of this risk I am going to admit you for observation.” There was no real risk of infection and no nerve damage, but Clarke wanted additional time with the patient, she needed to make sure there was no risk to her safety. 

“I appreciate your concern and if the first doctor treated me rather than try to fill in the blanks on some form so much time would not have passed, but I’m fine, just stitch up this hole in my arm and I’ll be on my way.”

“If you’d like to refuse the treatment plan I offer, I can get another doctor to treat you.”

“Doctor Griffin, you are certainly a person who likes to have things her way. You win this one, treat my wound and I’ll stick around for a while. I just ask you allow me to stay here. I have no desire to deal with other doctors and nurses, and the entertainment value is much better here.”

“I won’t admit you, you can stay here, but you stay for my entire shift rather than just a night.”

“How long is your shift?”

“I have 46 hours and 35 minutes remaining.”

Lexa nodded in agreement as Clarke continued to tend to the wound. Her hands were gentle and skilled as she cleaned and stitched the wound. Injecting a round of antibiotics into Lexa’s IV, Clarke stated she would check on her after she finished with her stack of patient charts.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the next six hours Lexa watched Clarke rush from one patient to the next. She witnessed how Clarke was compassionate and invested in each patient she treated, whereas many of the other doctors spent only a few minutes with a patient aiming only to diagnose and move on. Lexa found herself intrigued by Clarke wondering what motivated her to do more than all the others, to spend more time with her patients, to invest a piece of herself with each one. 

Shadows shifted as time went on. Patients came and went as Lexa kept her word and sat waiting for Clarke’s shift to end. By four pm Lexa found herself wondering where Clarke had ventured off to, it had been at least two hours since she had last seen her running about the emergency room. 

“Lexa, how are you feeling?” Clarke appeared for out of nowhere, carrying two cups of coffee with her. “How’s your pain? Are you terribly bored yet? Hope you like your coffee black.” Clarke’s questions came at Lexa faster than she could respond.

“I’m feeling fine, I have no pain, my arm is fine, you did great work Doctor Griffin. I’m only bored when you disappear and I have no one interesting to watch. And black is perfect.”

“Call me Clarke, Doctor Griffin reminds makes me feel like my mother. We are experiencing an odd slowdown in patients right now so I thought I would come and check on you, add a little morphine to your IV, and bring you a cup of coffee.”

“Thank you Clarke. I’m really not in any pain.” Clarke gave Lexa a knowing look, she was going to get the pain medication rather she liked it or not, as there was no way she was not in pain. “Clarke, are you trying to keep me medicated in order to get information out of me, people have tired that before it doesn’t work.” Lexa offered with a sly smile.

“Umm, no I’m interested in keeping your pain at bay so you can function. Now, why would people be drugging you to get information from you, are you a spy or something?” Clarke smirked at her joke, Lexa’s expression turned stoic. 

Clarke felt a vibration in her hip, not again. “Excuse me Lexa” Clarke pulled a small pager from her waistband, pediatrics was paging her. “I need to go check on a patient, I’ll stop by soon, and sooner than this time, I promise.”  
With a flash of blonde hair Clarke was gone, racing once again to help another patient. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Dr. Griffin quick, it’s Luke Sanders.”

“The infant with an upper respiratory infection? What’s going on, has his pediatrician made it in to see him?” Clarke inquired about the patient she had seen only hours earlier.

“Yes doctor. His oxygen stats are dropping and we cannot reach the attending. The mother is panicking and insisted we page you.”

Clarke rushed to Luke’s room, slowing to calm herself just outside the door. “Hey little man, I hear you’re not feeling so well.” Clarke looked at Luke’s mother she truly looked like a nervous wreck. Luke’s oxygen stats were certainly lower than they liked to see, his were in the low nineties and his wheezing had become more apparent. 

“Gina, let’s increase his level of antibiotics, and put an infant oxygen mask on him, put the oxygen level at hundred percent. Page the pulmonologist as well, I don’t care if he is in the middle of a business dinner, get him in here immediately. If he is not here in thirty minutes I want to know, and I will get Kane to drag him in here. In the meantime, get the breathing therapist in here and have her do a breathing treatment.” Clarke’s seriousness was not to be mistaken. 

Clarke spent the next ten minutes comforting Luke’s mother, reassuring her that Luke would be okay, that he would recover, and that she would be taking him home in a few days. “Doctor Griffin, Dr. Tolfkosky is on his way in, he should be here in about three minutes or so.” 

“Thank you Gina. Ms. Sanders, I need to go back to the E.R. to check on additional patients. Dr. Tolfkosky is fantastic, he will take great care of you and Luke, if you need anything else, again, just have the nurses page me and I’ll be here.”

Ms. Sanders thanked Clarke as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’ll come back and check on you two before I leave.” Once again Ms. Moore acknowledged Clarke’s statement with a simple nod and turned her gaze back to her ill son.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Clarke walked her way through the newly designed pediatric wing, back towards the emergency department she felt the all too familiar vibration on her hip. She retrieved her pager from the waistband of her scrub pants, nearly dreading what news the vibration would bring. A page to the lecture center in the medical school, this was unusual.

Clarke changed her direction and began walking towards the medical school, which was located across the street from the hospital. She noticed she was not the only one walking in the direction of the lecture center. Hushed voices discussed what the mass page would be about, why everyone was being gathered, it seemed all attendings and residents were being paged to the lecture center.  
She had been in the lecture center for about ten minutes when Kane finally stood to address the waiting crowd. 

“Everyone I’m sure you’re all wondering why we brought you here today. As I’m sure you’re all aware a large storm has been approaching, the initial predictions indicated the snow would begin around mid-night and would last the next few days. The storm has picked up energy, the snow accumulation began two hours ago and we already have three to four inches on the ground. Because of this the city has issued an emergency storm proclamation. We have posted shift lists on the back wall. Several of you will be leaving immediately, we need you to get home to your families, get some rest and be ready to replace all of us staying in a couple of days. The rest of you, the majority of us, will be staying and rotating shifts in the hospital. It is predicted we will be snowed in for a couple of days, at least. What I need you all to do now is check the lists, see if you are staying or going home, if you are slotted to leave get out of here immediately, those of us staying will make sure charts are passed accordingly. Those working in the emergency room, I need you to go release any patients you can as soon as possible. In about an hour the roads will be impassable and everyone still here, will be here for a few days, try to spare the patients this experience if it can be avoided. If you have any questions, please find me after you verify your status.”

There was no need for Clarke to check the list, she knew she would be one of the many staying at the hospital; however, she followed protocol and verified her assumption. Learning of the impending lockdown, she rushed to the emergency room to do as Kane had requested and begin treating and releasing as many patients as possible, in an hour, she knew she had to begin with Lexa.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Lexa, I’m going to go ahead and release you. I’ll write you a prescription for some pain medication and antibiotics just to be safe. You’ll want to head out right away, there is a blizzard and in about an hour the roads will be impassable. Do you have any questions?”

“Clarke, you seem frazzled, all day I have seen you manage complicated cases and even take down a man twice your size, never once seeming to be distracted by it, but a little snow storm and you’re all concerned?”

“Sorry Lexa, I do not mean to seem panicked. I, as well as others, have been assigned to treat and release as many patients as possible before the roads shut down. We would like to not have a bunch of people trapped waiting for the next several days to go home.”

“Well then Clarke get to work. I can wait, there are worse things in life than being stuck here with you for a couple of days. I’ll get the next round of coffee; I’m betting you’ll need it. Make sure you use this bed if you need it, I don’t need it.” Lexa stood and ripped the IV line from her arm quickly grabbed a piece of gauze and pressed it to the spot where her IV line once was. “I’m good Clarke, get to work.” Lexa winked and walked towards the cafeteria. 

Clarke stared in the direction Lexa ventured off in, she was not sure what she had just witnessed but she was sure Wells had been right when he warned her about this particular patient earlier in the day. With the constant reminder that time was not on her side, Clarke quickly went back to work. 

When she arrived in the emergency room forty-five minutes ago there were twenty-five patients in assigned beds waiting to be treated, admitted or released, and another eighteen waiting to be seen. At the end of the forty-minutes the swift working team of doctors and nurses had admitted ten patients and treated and released all of the remaining patients. The emergency room was eerily empty, in the five years Clarke had been at Johns Hopkins, she had never seen the emergency department empty. 

“Clarke you are certainly efficient.” Lexa smirked, handing Clarke a hot cup of coffee.

“Thank you Lexa, you still have time to get home, you showed go.” Clarke wanted Lexa to stay, she wanted to find out more about the patient with the redacted file and the woman with dazzling green eyes, but knew her job was to treat and release today.

“Good evening Clarke, is this the last patient?” Kane inquired as he walked through the now empty emergency room.

“Yes sir. I mean technically she has been released, but she asked we see to all the other patient’s before getting to her. We treated her for a gunshot wound, completed a couple rounds of IV antibiotics and pain medication, and provided her with a prescription for the same. She is able to go now Kane.” Clarke spouted off far more information than Kane needed.

“Ah, I see. Well ma’am I’m sorry to say the city has officially closed the roads and the weather is too powerful to walk in, it looks like you’ll be spending the next few days here. We will have your prescriptions filled at our pharmacy, and find you an empty room. This will all be provided to you at no cost. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused…” before Kane could finish, the head of hospital security interrupted. 

“Kane, my apologies but I need to see you immediately.” Indra was never one to offer cordial greetings, her focus was on the task at hand.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wells parked his jeep in the parking garage across the street. He could not believe he was back here already, but who knew what kind of chaos the storm may bring and how understaffed the hospital might be, his obligation, as a doctor, and as a resident of Baltimore were to the people of the city. As he walked towards the sky bridge linking the parking garage to the hospital, he saw a body lying on the ground. 

“Officer Blake?” Wells shouted as he ran towards the woman lying on the ground. “Octavia?” Wells gently rolled her over, discovering a large gash across her forehead, apparently he had already found his first patient of the evening. After checking for any additional injuries, he picked up the unconscious woman and proceeded to carry her towards the hospital. There was no doubt, things were about to get interesting.


	2. We have an Issue

Indra hurried Kane towards a conference room just outside the emergency department, leaving Clarke and Lexa alone in the now empty emergency room. Indra entered the small conference room, though still daytime outside and several windows in the conference room, the room remained darkened, there would be no light offered through the storm. After checking the hallway for lingering ears, Indra flipped the light switch and motioned for Kane to sit. 

“Kane we have a small issue, Prince Ahmed is still here, the helicopter did not arrive in time to escort him to the hospital in Washington D.C. He is without his personal protection services, nor does he have diplomatic protection services.”

“Okay. Who on your team remains in the hospital? How many people are aware the Prince is here? Is there a medical file with his name on it in the system or was he entered in with a code name?”

“I sent most of my team home. There were so few patients, and with the emergency department closed I did not see the point of keeping a large force on staff during the storm. I have myself, Lincoln, and Harper. The media reported about the Prince’s collapse at the concert last night and that he was sent here for treatment, thus it is pretty fair to say the world knows he’s here. As with all high priority patients a code name was used, but I’m not sure it does much considering the media publication.”

“I’m not concerned with your staffing amount, all are more than capable of protecting the patients and staff of this hospital. On the plus side, I know Dr. Tolfkosky is in the hospital, he treated Prince Ahmed last night, I’ll make sure he remains available to the Prince, and to answer any questions that may come in from the Saudi Arabian embassy. We certainly want them to know we are providing the Prince with the best care available. Are there any other concerns I should be aware of at this time?”

“Nothing else sir. Just wanted to relay this information as I was certain it would be of importance to you.”

“Thank you Indra. Recruiting you as Hopkins head of security remains to be one of my greatest accomplishments as an administrator.”

Indra only nodded to Kane’s compliment, perhaps it was her training as a Marine, perhaps her training as a Special Forces Marine, or perhaps she was never a person to need flattery to know she was doing a quality job. For her, success was always measured through her own personal knowledge of her excellence when compared to others, it was never about how others viewed her excellence. As she exited the conference room she flipped the light switch, leaving Kane standing in the dark. Kane could only shake his head as he walked out of the room, he knew hiring former Marines for his security team would create an interesting dynamic of energy, but he always remained surprised by their overzealous commitment to the job, of course when it came to the safety of his patients and staff, there was no better option than Indra and Lincoln.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The elevator chimed as it reached the emergency room floor, Wells shifted the weight of the woman in his arms and exited the elevator. The hallways were empty and silent, he had never experienced the hospital like this, even at three in the morning there were people shuffling about, murmurs could be heard, but now the silence was deafening. 

Not wanting to jostle the injured woman he slowly walked towards the patient area in the emergency room, as he turned the corner he called out for help, perhaps someone remained. “Help, I need a gurney, I have an injured patient. Is anyone here?”

Clarke was startled by the sound of the yelling voice, she had verified the emergency room was empty and hollering voice sounded familiar, but she saw Wells leave, was she losing her mind. She looked over to Lexa, her reaction indicated she had heard the voice as well. Clarke ran to curtain three and grabbed the bed before she could reach to unlock the breaks, Lexa had already flipped the lock. Offering Lexa an appreciative smile, Clarke pulled the bed back and maneuvered it out of the room pushing it in the direction of the elevators.

“Wells? What happened? Is that Octavia? What are you doing here?”

“It’s nice to see you too Clarke. I found her in the parking garage, I thought I would come back when I saw the weather report, and Octavia was just lying in on the ground in the parking garage.” Wells laid Octavia on the bed as he explained things to Clarke. His shirt was stained with blood, sweat pooled at this temples, and concern was etched across his face, “Clarke, do you know why she was here? Her gun is missing.”

Clarke looked to the holster at Octavia’s waist, the safety strap was unbuttoned and the pistol was missing. “Wells, was there anyone else in the parking garage? Was her patrol car there?” Clarke continued her questioning of Wells as she checked Octavia’s pupil response. 

“Her car was there, the backseat door was open, but there was no one else there.” Wells offered all he could remember as he cleaned the head wound.

“This is a pretty nasty laceration, has she spoken at all.” Clarke was worried about the effects of the force that hit Octavia in the head, beyond the gapping cut on her forehead. 

“No, but I have no idea how long she has been unconscious.” Wells wish he had the answers as he knew more information would help them properly assess Octavia, to allow them to provide the proper course of treatment. 

Clarke retrieved a suture kit from the trauma room as Wells injected numbing medication into the area surrounding the cut. “Wells, could you give me a 4.0 nylon on a P3?” Clarke requested the suturing set up from Wells, she would make sure she sutured Octavia, as she knew her sutures were neater and cleaner, being less likely to scar. 

“Clarke, the PS2 is recommended for skin closures, are you sure you want the P3?” Clarke rolled her eyes in frustration, this is exactly why she would be suturing Octavia’s forehead gash.

“I’m sure I want the P3 Wells. I would like Octavia to not look like Frankenstein’s monster in three weeks when the sutures have been removed and the skin is healing. This is her face we are talking about, I will use the smaller needle and take my time to assure she has next to no scar when this has healed. Would you like to second guess me any further?” Without a word Wells handed the requested suture set-up to Clarke, he knew the question was merely rhetorical. 

With a delicate finesse Clarke laced the needle through the tender flesh, tugging the skin closed, knotting the stitch, clipping the suture, and starting on the next stitch. Twelve stitches and twenty minutes later Clarke had finished suturing Octavia’s head, it was only once she had finished the sutures that she noticed Lexa was no longer in the emergency room, perhaps Kane had found her a room. 

“Wells, she has been out for a while, let’s see if we can get her to awake up, hand me an ammonia inhalant, and be prepared to duck because if this wakes her up she may come to punching.” Clarke’s comment was only partially a joke, she knew Octavia was going to be furious when she wakes up, combined with a bit of confusion from what happened would likely be a hazardous combination. She snapped open the ammonia inhalant and instantly regretted doing so, so close to her own face, the smell was truly awful. 

Reaching out Clarke waved the inhalant a slight distance from Octavia’s nose, the reaction was nearly instant as small wrinkles graced Octavia’s forehead, tugging at the newly tied sutures. “Oh my God, what is that smell, where did the cat pee now? Fuck my head is pounding, did I drink that much last night? Oh shit, did I take that guy home? Where am I?” Octavia brought her hand to her head as she tried to establish her bearings, Wells reached out and stopped Octavia from applying pressure to the injury. 

“Octavia, Wells found you in the parking garage with a large cut on your forehead, do you remember what happened?” The last time Clarke had seen Octavia she had arrested Richard Moore and was escorting him out of the hospital, and now she was injured and her service weapon was missing. 

“Clarke, I honestly have no idea. I remember accompanying a DUI in this morning and while I was here I placed another guy under arrest, but I don’t really remember anything after that.” 

“Your gun is gone Octavia; do you remember if you took Mr. Moore to the precinct?” Clarke was terrified about where the gun could be.

“What!?!” Octavia shot upright searching her hip for her firearm only to find her empty holster and her head spinning. “Clarke, I don’t know if I made it to the precinct, I don’t know what happened with the guy I arrested. Clarke, where’s my radio, did you guys take it? I need to radio in to the station, I need to put out an APB on this guy, fuck, I’m screwed, how could I let some guy get my gun, I had him cuffed, I was putting him in the back of my car and everything went black. Shit.” Clarke could feel her stomach drop as Octavia’s vague memory returned. 

“Octavia, I don’t know where your radio is, I picked you up and brought you here, there was nothing else on the ground around you and we didn’t take anything off of you. Clarke, we need to tell Indra, she’s here right? She’s going to flip about this.” Wells comments did nothing to alleviate Octavia’s guilt or concern. 

“Thank you for that Wells.” Clarke spoke while giving him a look that could kill. Octavia had graduated from the academy in the summer and had been trying to live up to her big brother ever since; however, Clarke believed Octavia had a better appreciation and understanding of the job than Bellamy ever would. Bellamy had been handed the opportunity to promote, was mentored through the academy, truly the golden boy, whereas Octavia had to fight for recognition, had to outperform every other candidate just to escape from being referred to as Bellamy’s little sister. “I’ll call Indra, she’ll have to look into this, the roads are closed, there’s no way an officer can get here right now.”

“Clarke, what am I going to do? All I wanted was to belong somewhere, I belong with the force, they are going to boot me for this. They always said I was too small, incapable of actually handling myself.” Octavia’s self-depreciation was saddening and completely irrelevant, she was an amazing officer and the force was lucky to have her. The phone to the security office continued to ring, Clarke disconnected the line and opted for the old school loud speaker page, hopefully Indra would be in an area with an activate speaker.

“Indra Code Grey in the Emergency Room, Indra Code Grey in the Emergency Room.” Clarke hoped Indra would respond quickly to the page as she did not want to be more descriptive over the intercom. Only seconds passed before the phone began to ring.

“This is Indra, what is the security need in the Emergency Room, I thought there were no more patients there?” 

“Indra this is Clarke; we need you down here now. Officer Blake was attacked in the parking garage and her service weapon is missing.” There was no response, only a powerful slamming of the phone.  
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Lexa tweaked her finger in her ear, adjusting the small earpiece in her ear canal. “Lexa, are you there? Lexa come in.” The voice in her ear was horse and sounded tired.

“Monty? Have you slept recently? You sound awful.” 

“Lexa! Is that you? Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay, why are you all excited?”

“Lexa, you have been on radio silence for more than ten hours. The last time we spoke you were being shot at and had been hit. Your last words to me were ‘fuck, another gunshot wound to explain to some asinine doctors.’” Monty retorted with frustration, he had been saying the same two phrases into his microphone for over ten hours, his voice, mind, and body were exhausted. 

“Sorry about that Monty. Look I have an issue and I need your help.” 

“Of course you do, you only ever talk to me when you need things from me. You know Raven treats me a lot better than you do, maybe I should get you a new handler to badger.” Monty’s tone was flat but Lexa knew this was only Monty being Monty, he commonly teased about having someone replace him; she knew he never would as she was far too entertaining.

“Monty, we have work to do. I’m at Johns Hopkins, I’ve been snowed in here, an officer was attacked here in the parking garage, her weapon is missing. Can you hack into the security footage, let me know what you can find out about this attack? The guy the officer had arrested accosted an emergency room doctor earlier today, I need to make sure the lunatic isn’t loose in the hospital. We need to protect these people.”

“I’ll reach out to Indra, see if she’ll grant us some access to their security features, I’ll need to anyways so I can delete your new patient record. Have they discharged you, I can’t modify your file until it clears the active patient status phase.”

“Proceed with caution on Indra, she doesn’t know I’m here, yet. You can tell her of my presence but let her know I’m only here as a patient, I have no intention of interfering.”

“Sure thing Lexa. I’ll smooth out the wrinkles so you can wreck more havoc. By the way, did you take out the mark last night so I can close the case file?”

“Affirmative Monty, Jason Stevenson has been eliminated as a threat to the United States of America, the case is closed.”

“Thank you for the official response. I will get to work on accessing the security footage and providing you with play by play of what went down there. Anything else I need to know?”

“Monty, the guy who was arrested threatened people here, this is urgent, please prioritize this project.”

“Will do Lexa, though I think there is more to it than you are letting on to.”

“You always think there is more to something than there usually is. I’ll keep my ear piece in so long as it is safe without risking my cover, but I may not always be able to respond.”

“Noted.”  
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Lexa searched the area surrounding the police cruiser, Moore’s threats rang in her ears, she hopelessly searched for the missing firearm. She found nothing, no handcuffs, no keys, no gun, no Moore. There was no trace of where the man had gone, and the heavy falling snow had erased any tracks that may have been left in the snow. She looked out the parking garage to the road, the road had disappeared below a blanket of snow. The usual hustle and bustle of the city had silenced, in that moment she felt as if the world had ended and she was left alone. Lexa turned back to the police cruiser, noticing blood on the outside of the rear passenger door, “how odd for the blood to be there” she thought “if Moore was being placed into the cruiser the blood should be on the inside of the door.”

Lexa withdrew an exceptionally small pipette from the wristband of her watch, assuring not to smear the blood on the door, she collected a sample of the blood. Flipping open the face of her watch, she placed a droplet of the blood onto a small white splotch inside the watch. Within mere seconds the device returned a result; the blood belonged to Officer Octavia Blake of the Baltimore City Police. With confirmation of the blood belonging to Octavia, Lexa remained puzzled on how the blood could be on the outside of the door if Moore was in front of Octavia being loaded into the car, thus placing the inside of the door behind Octavia’s back. 

“Something is off” Lexa declared into the empty parking garage. She removed the phone from her pocket and photographed the area. She walked from the parking garage as she emailed the photos to Monty for comparison with security footage.

“Lexa, are you able to talk?” Monty’s voice invaded the silence surrounding Lexa.

“What did you find out?”

“We have an issue Lexa.”  
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The sound of Indra’s running footsteps made bile rise up in Octavia’s throat. She had always admired Indra’s strength and abilities to act under pressure. Octavia had met Indra when she accompanied her mother to work one day and had been mentored by her ever since.

Octavia and her brother Bellamy were raised by their single mother who had worked on the maintenance staff at Johns Hopkins. Occasionally Octavia would be forced to join her mother at work, she would hide away in janitorial closets during her mother’s shift, switching to a new closet when her mother moved to cleaning another wing of the hospital. After her mother died of cancer she found herself wandering the halls of the hospital looking for a purpose, was she to remain a nobody hiding behind closed doors, was there anything else in the world for her? It was during one of her random visits that she first met Indra. Indra intercepted Octavia during this particular walk, she believed the young woman must certainly be an addict, scoping out the hospital trying to gain access to some unguarded drugs. Octavia explained to Indra why she was really there, and to this day cannot figure out why Indra elected to sit down and talk to her. It was odd how easily she found it to connect with Indra. For months Indra tried to persuade Octavia to join the Marines, to experience all life has to offer by traveling the world and fighting for her country, Octavia was admittedly tempted by the idea. She longed to be seen as more, but she couldn’t leave her brother, not after they had lost their mother. She settled for the police academy as she thought it would offer her a sense of belonging and strength like the military and the convenience of remaining near her brother. She instantly regretted her decision two days into the academy, this is when the trainers had discovered she was the little sister of Bellamy Blake, from that day forward everyone referred to her as Officer Blake’s little sister. 

Indra snapped Octavia from her reminiscent fog, “Officer Blake do you care to explain to me how a violent man escaped your custody and how you managed to lose your firearm?”

Octavia’s gut sunk, disappointing Indra, her mentor was excruciatingly demoralizing. “Ma’am I don’t remember what happened, I had the suspect handcuffed and had placed him into my patrol car, and I swear I had closed the door. He was there and then everything just went dark. The suspect did not resist or argue when I escorted him out, I made him sit in a room for a while to calm down before escorting him to my patrol car. He seemed to have calmed significantly. I don’t understand what happened.” Frustration etched across Octavia’s face as she tried to remember and explain how she lost control.

Indra disliked being harsh to Octavia but her concern was too focused on the safety of the patients and staff of the hospital to be understanding in this moment. “Octavia, I acknowledge your frustrations but right now my only concern is on finding out what happened to your gun. If the hospital wasn’t already on lock down, it would be now.” Indra turned from Octavia and stormed out of the emergency room marching towards the security office. “Lincoln, Harper meet me at the office, we have a potentially armed individual in the hospital.”

Indra left a wave of awkward silence behind. Wells looked to Clarke, he always looked to Clarke during uncomfortable moments. “Octavia don’t let Indra get to you, she’s just doing her job, she’s not blaming you.” There was no response from the defeated officer, she laid back on the gurney, trying to recall what had transpired earlier. 

“Wells can you keep an eye on her, we’ll need to complete the concussion protocol with her. I need to a minute.”  
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Clarke walked through the emergency room, looking for Lexa as she went, “where did she go” Clarke pondered. She turned into the locker room, like the emergency room this is the first time she’d seen the locker room empty and saw so many lockers empty. It seemed like all of the emergency room residents had left before the storm hit, was she really the only one left on staff for the emergency room. Clarke pulled her black duffle bag from her locker and retrieved her cellphone. Sixteen missed calls, eight voicemails, and twenty-six text messages, she gawked at the number, “what the hell? When did I become so popular? Or did a little snow storm lead people to believe the world was ending.” Clarke laughed at her end of the world joke. As there were fewer voicemails than text messages she decided to begin there. 

“Please enter your passcode.” She rested in the recliner in the corner of the room as she entered her passcode. 

“New message sent at nine forty-three am; Clarke, its Mom, wondering if you wanted to do lunch today? Or are you on today? Call me back and let me know. Love you.”

Clarke deleted the message, her mother never kept her shift schedule in mind or she did and simply didn’t care.

“New message sent at nine fifty-seven am; hey Clarke, I know you’re working today, just thought I’d come by for lunch so we could talk. See you around eleven, hope you’re having a great day. Lov…”

Clarke deleted the message before she finished hearing it, there was no need to listen, she knew what Finn was about to say. How is it that a boy she broke up with six weeks ago knew her schedule and her mother doesn’t?

“New message sent at ten thirteen am; hi sweetie, just checking in again. I guess you’re working today. Maybe I’ll just swing by the hospital and visit. Depending on the weather. Love you.” Clarke rolled her eyes as she deleted the message, her mother was clearly plotting with Finn, again.

When Clarke had told her mother about Finn, she was delighted to hear Clarke had chosen an ambitious man to date, with extra emphasis on the man part. Abby was relieved as Clarke’s previous relationship had been with a scandalous woman determined to destroy Clarke’s future, or so she described when discussing Amy. Abby chalked it up to college experimentation, while Clarke ignored her mother’s disregard for the seriousness and importance of her previous relationship. 

“New message sent at ten forty-six am; hey honey, I’m not going to make it to the hospital to visit you today. Mercy called me in, apparently one of my patients came in today demanding to see me. Sorry to cancel. Love you.” Delete, Clarke couldn’t help but think “is it really a cancellation if I wasn’t planning on it?”

“New message sent at eleven fourteen am; so you looked busy when I came by. I waited around a bit but you seemed to be all over the place. By the way you look amazing today. I’ll come back by to take you to dinner. See you then. Lov…” She shook her head in disbelief, did she actually just hear what she thought she just heard? He’s still calling, still saying I love you, and still coming to her work uninvited, “he’s such a creep” she thought.

“New message sent at twelve twenty-seven pm; Clarke I just spoke with Kane, he said a patient’s parent attacked you today, are you okay? Why didn’t you call and why aren’t you answering your phone? This is why you need a man around Clarke, you need someone to protect you. You’ve punished Finn long enough Clarke. It’s time to forgive him and take him back before he finds someone else. He’s a good man, Clarke, just like your father.”

The comparison made Clarke seethe with anger, Finn was nothing like her father and how dare she speak about her father, the woman should be in prison for his death. She should have lost her license, but no. Her father was dead and thanks to Police Chief Jaha, Abby faced no repercussions for her decision. Clarke could feel the hot tears burning at her eyes.

“New message sent at twelve forty-six pm; Clarke my love, mom just told me about what happened with your patient this morning. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there; I should have been there to protect you. I’m on my way back to the hospital, the weather is getting awful out here, but I’ll be there, I’ll protect you. No one will ever hurt you again.” Clarke shook her head in disbelief again, she did not need protecting and she hadn’t been hurt, she handled the situation. She could not figure out how Kane’s description to Abby had twisted into the version Finn had received. She could only sigh with relief that the storm appeared to have stopped Finn as he had not yet appeared. 

“New message sent at one forty-nine pm; my phone is about to die and my car got stuck in the snow. I’m sorry Clarke, I’ll be there I promise, Lov….” Again she found herself rolling her eyes and thinking “I promise I don’t care.”

She deleted the last voicemail, her ear was hot from holding the phone to it for so long. She flipped to her text messages, twenty texts from Finn, she quickly scrolled through the texts. “I’m sorry Clarke. I love you. Please take me back. You’re my everything.” As she reached the last text she found it off and slightly unnerving, “I did this for you. Phone is about dead, I’ll see you soon my love.” The last text was sent at two thirty-seven pm. “Maybe he’s mad he got his crappy car stuck in the snow. Hopefully, he decided to walk home.” Clarke really hoped he wasn’t near the hospital, there’s no way she could survive being stuck in the hospital with him during the lockdown. She’d end up killing him, she exited her text conversation with Finn, electing no response would be better at this time. 

She had two texts from Wells, they were his typical long-winded apologizing texts. He was apologizing for their encounter that morning, explaining how stressed he was, how the political nature surrounding his father was backlashing onto him, how people were calling him a race traitor, how he was sorry that such distance had grown between them, how he missed his best friend. 

Clarke felt bad for pushing Wells away, she knew it wasn’t his fault, she was glad he told her the truth about the accident, but she couldn’t help that every time she saw him, she flashed back to the night her father was killed. Back to the moment he told her Abby had been the driver not Jake, to him telling her that her mother’s blood alcohol level was a point two six. In a single conversation, Wells had killed her father and made her mother a murderer, who would never pay the price for her crimes because of Well’s father. The car accident wasn’t Wells fault, her mother’s drinking and then driving wasn’t Wells fault, her mother running the stoplight and plowing into a garbage truck resulting in her father being ejected from the car, floating through space and violently smashing to the earth was not Well’s fault, but it was his words that broke her heart. It was his eyes she stared into as the horrific accident unfolded itself in her imagination. She didn’t blame Wells, and she certainly didn’t hate him, but she couldn’t look at him and not think about the night that destroyed her family.

Wiping hot tears from her face and shaking her head of the awful memory, Clarke closed the text conversation with Wells, and looked to see what her mom had to say. “Lunch at 11?” “Sorry can’t make lunch, duty calls.” And finally, another long tirade about how she needs to take Finn back, this time it ended with a “before he finds someone better.” Clarke’s mother always knew how to stick the dagger right through the heart, a skill Clarke developed at a young age and often used to end a relationship.

The final text was from Octavia, and like Octavia it was short and sweet, “Hey, there’s a hottie in curtain three and she is totally checking you out.” Clarke smiled for the first time since she entered the locker room. Enjoying the brief reminder of Lexa’s subtle smile and beautiful green eyes.  
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Clarke stood from the recliner and stretched. She placed her phone in her jacket pocket and shoved her duffle bag back into the locker. As she pushed open the locker room door a feminine hand caught the door and held it open. 

“Hey, there you are. Where did you disappear to? You were there one minute and then just gone, like a ninja.” Clarke smiled at Lexa, she wasn’t sure why but something about the woman’s presence calmed her.

“Well doctor, I decided you would need a coffee after that incident and honestly all of the IV fluid that you pumped into me really made me have to pee.” Lexa returned the banter hoping her lofting tone would hide her true concern. She needed to find a way to talk to Indra without anyone knowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everyone who has read and continues to read.


	3. Enemy Within

Lexa met Clarke’s smile with a subtle smile of her own. Clarke reached out and took the warm coffee from Lexa’s offering hand. The warmth of the small generic coffee cup warmed Clarke as the bitterly cold day was invading the empty emergency room. 

“Lexa, I’m starving and I’m assuming you must be as well, since you’ve not eaten since you came in, unless you snuck a bite when you disappeared.” Clarke stumbled over her words.

“Clarke, would you like to get a bite to eat with me? I here this hospital has pretty decent food.” Lexa asked the question Clarke seemed to struggle asking. 

“Is there some hospital food blog out there that I’m unaware of or do you find yourself to be a connoisseur of hospital food?” This time Clarke’s response flowed without a stumble. “I’m not sure what is still open, but if you’d like to join me, I can prevent you from getting lost again.”

“Come one Clarke, I wasn’t lost, I just went to get coffee and to use the bathroom.” 

“Lexa if it took you over an hour to do those two things, and since this particular cup is from the vending machine near the parking garage, and since there is a coffee vending machine two halls over, next to a waiting room and bathrooms, I have to say you were either lost or you were up to something else. Maybe you were off deleting your hospital records again.” Clarke was more observant than Lexa had realized, a beneficial skill. 

“Alright, so maybe I got a little lost, this place is huge and sometimes the layout makes absolutely no sense to me. Can we go eat now?” Lexa attempted to cover her tracks hoping Clarke did not suspect more than the idea that Lexa was a little lost. 

The two walked through the massive hospital in near silence, side glances and little smiles were the only communications between them. The long corridors were a labyrinth to those unfamiliar with the hospital, Lexa knew the complex nature of the hospital, she studied the floorplans for months preparing for this assignment. Her months of study told her the fastest way to Zayed Tower was the opposite route Clarke was taking her, Lexa was glad the venture would be a lot longer as she still didn’t know where Moore had disappeared to or who blacked out the cameras in the parking garage. 

The naturally lit garden vistas of Zayed Tower were dimmed by the falling snow. Gray skies loomed above while large white flakes fluttered to the ground, the glass rattled as the wind blew around the exterior walls. The weather cast a darkening feeling throughout the hospital. They could hear soft chatter as they approached the atrium, the aroma of the cooking food made Lexa’s stomach growl. She had not realized just how hungry she was. 

A few of the restaurants had remained open, Clarke assumed Kane had something to do with that. “Well Lexa what would you like to eat, my treat, I did cause you to be stuck here after all.”

“Clarke, if I didn’t want to stay I would have left hours ago, so there is no fault on your part for me being stuck in this hospital. You saved my arm, any other doctor would have amputated it, so what would you like to eat?”

“Lexa, no one would have amputated your arm. Although Dr. Jaha may have been tempted to, but that was because he thought you were a pain in the ass. I can’t let a patient treat me to a meal, we are not allowed to take gifts from patients.”

“He has no sense of humor or patience, he’s lucky I didn’t amputate his arm and beat him with it. And I’m not your patient anymore, so no conflict here, just think of me as some girl you met in a bar.” Lexa bantered with Clarke, offering a coy smirk. 

“Ah yes the Emergency Room bar, my second favorite bar next to Max’s Taphouse.” Clarke allowed the joke to continue, it was nice to have someone she could talk to without worrying about what the other person was thinking, she enjoyed the comfort she felt in Lexa’s presence. 

The pair decided on burritos from Baja Fresh, which the hospital had incurred the cost for, this time neither girl would buy for the other. “I guess I’ll have to get you something to eat another time Clarke.” Another coy smile pulled at her full lips.  
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The pair settled for a table near the windows and ate their food in relative silence. Soft moans of satisfaction escaped Clarke’s mouth, her appetite was insatiable, as she savagely inhaled her burrito. Typically, she was more conversational during a meal, but her seemingly uncontrollable hunger would not allow her to slow long enough to speak. Once she had finished her food she looked up to see Lexa gawking at her with a mild look of shock etched across her face. 

“Hungry much?” Lexa teased as she took another bite of her only half eaten burrito. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize how hungry I was and during residency I’ve learned to eat very fast as a page will always come when you’re trying to eat.” Clarke’s cheeks pinked in embarrassment.

“No need to apologize. I’m actually quite impressed, I haven’t seen someone eat like that since my special forces training.” Lexa had let her guard slip and revealed a bit more information than she intended, she hoped if she ignored the blunder, Clarke would not mention it again. 

“Special forces, that would make you a significant badass. I know two other people who were in the special forces and they are both, without question, badasses. Do you happen to know Indra or Lincoln, they served together?”

Lexa’s hope had diminished, not only had Clarke caught the information, she had follow-up questions. Now she needed to decide how much she could trust Clarke and what little she could say to change the topic of conversation. 

“Dr. Griffin?” The questioning woman had distracted Clarke before Lexa had the opportunity to speak.

“Mrs. Sanders? Is everything okay, I’ve not received a page, is Luke okay?” Clarke diverted her attention from Lexa to the concerned mother standing near.

“He’s doing better, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to come back and check on him and for making sure Dr. Tolfkosky was paged. I don’t know what I would do without Luke after losing Vincent.” The woman was overcome with grief, tears began to stream down her face as the sorrow shook in her chest stealing her words. 

Clarke stood and approached the woman, she ushered her to the table where she and Lexa were sitting. Lexa stood offering the woman her chair and walked towards the small eateries. Clarke grabbed her chair and pulled it closer to the sobbing woman. Patricia shook as the tears continued to flow down her cheeks, her breaths uneven as the sobs caught in her throat. Lexa returned with a steaming hot cup of coffee, a selection of flavored creamers, and a variety of sweetener packets. She placed the items on the table in front of Patricia Sanders. Lexa grabbed a chair from a neighboring table and placed it where Clarke’s chair once was, she sat silently in the chair and watched Clarke comfort the woman.

“Mrs. Sanders, Luke is going to be okay, Dr. Tolfkosky is one of the best and I know he is prioritizing your son’s case. Luke is getting the best medical care in the country, we will not let anything happen to him.” As Clarke comforted the woman the streaming tears began to slow, Lexa offered a napkin to the woman as she had begun to wipe her cheeks with the sleeve of her cardigan.

“I know Luke will be okay and I am so grateful to you and Dr. Tolfkosky, it’s just every time I think of losing Luke I think of Vincent and how I lost him and I just can’t lose this last piece I have of him.” Patricia looked off into the distance, she was lost in her memories and needed to talk to someone, to have someone listen to her, she needed the comforting, even if it was given by a stranger as she cried in the middle of a hospital eatery. Clarke and Lexa both offered welcoming smiles, they remained silent allowing Patricia to express her feelings without interruption. 

“A year and a half ago Vincent and I decided we wanted to try to have a baby, it had taken my sister eight months to get pregnant, and my brother and his wife tried for four years before they were finally able to conceive. Vincent’s commitment to the Army was going to be up in a year, so we thought it was the perfect time to start trying. We assumed it would take a few months, but three months later we found out I was a month pregnant. Vincent was selected for a special operation in Afghanistan six months later, it was to be a short mission, two months at the longest, his commanding officer said he would be home before Luke was to be born. It all felt wrong, he wasn’t supposed to be deployed again, his enlistment was about to end, my dad already had a job lined up for him. Six weeks after he left, it was a Sunday morning, my parents were visiting, my mother was overly protective of me and didn’t like the idea of me being alone in the final months of my pregnancy so they came over nearly every day, and she would often stay the night ‘just in case,’ she’d pretty much always stay. My father was upstairs putting together a wooden recliner they had bought for us, an early Christmas gift, and mom and I were in the kitchen making breakfast as mom sipped her coffee. It was a beautiful winter’s morning, there was fresh snow on the ground and the sun was shining, a picture perfect day, until I heard the knock.” Patricia paused, the memory still fresh in her mind painting a vivid memory of the day her life changed.

“It was a loud knock, something you only hear in the movies when the cops are about to break down a door. I remember my mom jumping at the sound, spilling a small amount of coffee on her light blue blouse. My father’s footsteps mirrored mine as he walked across the upstairs towards the stairs. I reached the door as he stepped behind me. I could see the blurry image of green material in the glass windows framing the doorway. As I turned the knob my heart began to race and my hands sweat, I knew it was Vincent, I knew something had happened. The men were apologetic, they were kind and gentle, they told me how Vincent was in an airplane, how they were supposed to jump into an area for their mission, but that the plane was shot down over enemy lines. Aerial reconnaissance showed the crash site, that all passengers had been declared KIA, they said there was no way someone could have survived the crash. I collapsed into my father’s arms. A few weeks later we held a funeral, I buried a casket, a symbol of my husband’s death but it was empty and it remains empty, as the military has not been allowed to recover the bodies from the crash site. Every day I prayed Vincent would return to me, that he had survived the crash and that he would show up. I guess I’ve accepted it now; all I have left of him is Luke. Luke is the spitting image of his father. Vincent’s mother made me all these copies of his baby pictures, and we’ve framed them next to pictures of Luke, if it wasn’t for the dated looks of Vincent’s photos you wouldn’t know who was who. I just wish Vincent had met Luke and that Luke would have known his father, but he won’t he’ll never know how amazing his dad was.” Patricia laid her face in her hands as soft tears fell from her eyes. She had never retold the story of the day she lost her husband to anyone, she had never shared how she clung onto hope that the man she loved was still alive, she had never opened up, and here she was in the middle of Johns Hopkins spilling her sadness out to two women she knew nothing about. 

“Your husband was a very brave man, he died trying to bring freedom to others. You honor his memory with your strength and your son will know about his father, about his bravery and courage, about his loyalty to family and country, because your love for him will teach Luke everything he needs to know about his father.” Lexa was kind and gentle with her reassuring words. Clarke was surprised by Lexa’s words, she did not know much of the woman who intrigued her, but nonetheless she felt surprised by the softness and considerate words Lexa had shared. 

“Lexa’s right, your memories of Vincent will teach Luke so much about his father. I’m so sorry for your loss, but know you are a great mom. Luke will know his father through you.” Clarke did not know what to say, she knew the pain of losing her father, and could not help but think if Luke had the easier loss. 

“Thank you both. I’m sorry for ruining your dinner. I needed an escape, thank you for giving me that. I should get back to Luke.” 

Patricia stood from the table, wiped her eyes one final time and nodded her goodbye to Lexa and Clarke. Lexa leaned back in her chair, exhaling her held breath. Before Clarke could speak a page came over the intercom, “Dr. Griffin please report to the Emergency Room, an ambulance is in bound.”

“How in the world is an ambulance making it through this weather” Clarke questioned.

“I’m guessing with chains and a plow ahead,” Lexa retorted.  
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The calm water of the harbor had been replaced with tumultuous wakes. The salty water beat against the side of the small water taxi ferrying passengers across the harbor. The boat raced against time as visibility had become difficult. The large structures lining the harbor had nearly disappeared behind a curtain of snow. The captain was confident he could ferry these last passengers across the water using the Under Armour factory as his point of reference. The passengers clung to the railings of the boat as it bounced across the choppy water. Their faces reddened from the chilly temperature and dripped with moisture from the failing snow and splashing waves. 

The boat began to slow as the small dock appeared. The captain loosened his white knuckle grip on the steering wheel and released a breath of relief. As the boat approached its final destination passengers cautiously stood brushing the collected snow from their laps. These passengers were lucky to live in condos on the water front allowing them to return home even with the roads closed. As the area surrounding the dock became more visible, the captain noticed two men awaiting the boat, he hoped they were waiting for a passenger to arrive rather than expecting a ferry across the harbor. The captain would be making no more trips across the harbor until the storm had cleared. 

The boat slowed to a stop, the captain turned off the boat engine and tied it to the dock. With careful steps he guided each passenger to the permanent ramp on the dock, allowing them to exit the boat. Once the last passenger had stepped off the ramp, the two waiting men approached the boat and walked swiftly up the ramp. Their tan skin stood out against the blanketing snow. They wore dark clothing, leather gloves, and military style boots, their appearance was almost uniformed. The only obvious difference between the two men was the style of their facial hair, one opting for a goatee while the other carried a full beard.

“Gentlemen, the ferry is no longer running, it’s unsafe to drive the boat across the harbor, visibility is too low and the water too rough. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.” The captain bellowed respectfully above the hollowing winds.

The two men spoke to each other in Spanish, while observing the surrounding area. The captain listened to the conversation even though he could not understand what the men were saying he knew his discussion with them was not over. He quickly began tying the boat to the dock as the men discussed their situation.

The bearded man stepped onto the boat, declaring to the captain, “You will take us to the other side.”  
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The elevator doors opened revealing the empty Emergency Room. Lexa walked out of the elevator before Clarke quickly scanning the area, she was still concerned for Clarke’s safety, she could not help but wonder where had disappeared to, was he working with someone else, is that who spray painted the cameras black in the parking garage. Monty had provided her no updates.

“Lexa really, you didn’t have to come back down here with me, I’ll find Kane, have him let you know what room he’s putting you in for the next night or so, you can go watch t.v. and relax, I’ll come check on you later.”

“Don’t worry about me Clarke, I enjoy watching you work, seeing the exciting life of an E.R. doctor.”

“It’s not that exciting.” Clarke tried to deflect. “You can stay in the casting room, which is right here, it has a t.v. so hopefully you won’t get too bored.”

“Thanks Clarke, and don’t worry about me, I never get bored.” Lexa acquiesced to Clarke’s proposal, she sat in the recliner in the room and turned on the t.v. feigning a relaxed attitude.

“Clarke, there you are, the ambulance should be here any minute.” Wells shouted from the nurses’ station, perhaps he forgot the silent department did not require shouting. Clarke rolled her eyes and turned from Lexa walking towards Wells.

“You know there’s only like three of us in the emergency room, there is no need to yell. So what’s the trauma.”

“Oh, it’s a woman, she’s eight months pregnant and is most definitely in labor, with twins. One of the babies is already crowning and may be delivered in the ambulance.”

“Ok, did you page the nursery? Do we have any OB-GYNs in the building at the moment?”

“Umm. I didn’t think about that.” 

“Wells, you’re so lucky the nurses like you. You have to think of these things, as you can see you won’t always have a nurse to do this thinking for you.”

Clarke picked up the phone and called the Labor and Delivery department requesting any support they may have, and then called the Maternal Child Unit requesting support from their teams and letting them know there would be a new mother, with twins, transferring over to their department in a few hours. It seemed like Clarke had just hung up the phone when the ambulance arrived. 

She unlocked the ambulance bay doors and then, with Wells help, forced the doors open as snow piled into the doorway. The doors flung open on the ambulance, resonating the sounds of a baby’s wails. 

“Baby A didn’t want to wait, he delivered about two minutes ago. Baby B is right there waiting to come.” Wells helped the paramedic out of the ambulance as she cradled the newborn. Clarke helped the other paramedic with the stretcher, her hand slipped in blood as she pulled the stretcher from the ambulance, there was blood everywhere.

As Clarke turned to Wells she saw the nurses from labor and delivery arriving with two incubators and an OB-GYN, she was thankful there was one still in the hospital. 

“Oh my God he’s coming” the mother yelled. Clarke turned back to the mother just in time to catch the baby slipping outside of the woman’s extended vagina. There was blood and other bodily fluids everywhere. Clarke held the newborn as the paramedic clamped the umbilical cord.

“Would you like to cut the cord ma’am” Clarke offered the exhausted mother. With a shaky hand she reached out taking the scissors from the paramedic. The paramedic held her hand steady as she clipped the newborn’s umbilical cord. She laid back against the stretcher completely exhausted. 

“Do you have names for them” the Labor and Delivery nurse asked as they pushed the mother towards a trauma room.

“Yes the first one is Thane and this little guy,” she pointed to the newborn in Clarke’s arms “is Garrus, my husband has an obsession with video games.”

“Thank you for taking care of the patient Dr. Griffin, my team will take over from here.” Dr. Blackmon stated as Clarke rested Garrus in the incubator. The team transferred the woman to an emergency room gurney and wheeled her and the incubators out of the Emergency Room. 

Clarke looked down at herself she was covered in blood, “Wells, I’m going to go shower and change. Let me know if you need me back, I should be back in twenty minutes if I don’t hear from you to hurry.”

Clarke walked up to the casting room to discover Lexa fast asleep in the recliner, she couldn’t help but pause briefly enjoying the subtle beauty of the woman. She left the woman and continued her walk to the locker room, a nice hot shower was exactly what she needed. 

When she reached the locker room she grabbed her cellphone from her pocket, finally there were no missed calls, no messages, no texts, she enjoyed a world where Finn’s cellphone battery had died. She retrieved fresh clothes from her gym bag, including new scrubs and shoes, everything she was wearing was covered in blood. 

She walked into the showers and stripped off her bloody scrubs dropping them into the hazardous fluids clothing bin, and placed her shoes next to the bin. She lifted off her sports bra releasing her supple breasts from their fabric prison. She slipped her panties down, her body ached, she was drained, for some reason the simple act of removing her clothes relaxed her. She stepped into the hot water, the heat washed away her worries and relaxed her muscles.

As Clarke showered someone was busy shuffling through her belongings.  
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The heavy snow continued to fall, sending a shiver down the captain’s spine or perhaps it was the demanding presence of these two men who made him shiver. Either way he was resolved in his decision, he would not ferry any additional passengers. “Sir, I’m not taking this boat anywhere until the storm has cleared.

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you, you will take us.” The bearded man stated as the other man stepped onto the boat. The men walked toward the captain, leading him towards the stern of the boat. In a heavy accent the other man spoke, “you have two choices, drive the boat or let me drive the boat. Either way my brother and I will cross this water today.”

“I will not, now get off my boat.” Before the captain could remove the men from his boat, he felt himself lifted into the air. Strong hands gripping his arms and legs. The two men lifted the captain from the boat and dropped him into the water below. 

The captain pushed against the force of the men as he struggled for air. He thrashed his body, fighting to escape the grasp of the frigid water. The men tightened their grip on the captain’s arms, shoving him further into the water. His lungs burned for air, as panic filled his mind, no longer could he fight his body’s urge to breathe, relinquishing control his lungs gasped, desperate for air only to be filled with salty water. He coughed at the invasion of water filling his lungs allowing even more water to fill them. His body twitched as it was denied the precious air it needed. The captain’s eyes bulged as his final image of two figures looming above rough waters blackened. 

The two men loosened their grip on the lifeless body, in the distance they heard a woman’s faint voice “Tor do you need help with the boat?” The men could faintly see a woman approaching the dock.

“Miguel, get the body out of the water.” The man, sporting a suave goatee stated as he pushed the bearded man into the water.

“Aye, Ugueth I could have got him without being in the water, what the hell man.” Miguel mumbled through shivering teeth.

“I know brother, but now it looks like you tried to save him.” Ugueth responded as he stood. “Help, the captain he fell into the water, help, call for help.”

When she heard the panicked cries for help the woman began to run towards the boat. Hoping what she had just heard was not true. With baited breath she stepped onto the boat to see two men attempting to pull Tor’s body from the water. 

“What happened” she asked as she ran to the stern of the boat in effort to help lift Tor from the water. 

“He was trying to tie the stern to the dock when a wave hit the boat. He lost his footing and fell in. We heard the splash and ran to help. My brother, he jumped in to save the man, but struggled against the rough water to reach him.” Ugueth regurgitated the story with a panic laced tone.

With another push from Miguel and pull from Ugueth, they were able to get Tor onto the boat. His lips were blue and his eyes open, the man was clearly dead. 

“Hurry, help your brother out of the water, there’s an amazing hospital only a few blocks away on the other side of the harbor, we need to get him there, and your brother will need a doctor as well.” The woman hurried the men as she ran towards the boat’s controls. 

She had navigated the boat many times, always covering for Tor when he had to take his daughter Reese to the doctor’s, the family was all too familiar with the medical staff at Johns Hopkins. Using the CB radio in the water taxi, the woman called for help, asking for them to meet her at the water taxi loading site near Fell’s Point. 

Unlike the captain’s cautious travel across the harbor, the woman raced the boat to the other side. Tor’s lifeless body slide on the deck of the boat, as Miguel sat nearby shivering uncontrollably.  
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Bellamy was irritated to have been left at the station to answer emergency calls. Other officers were out closing roads and handling fights at stores over the last snow shovel, while he was stuck in the essentially empty police station. Even his sister had been sent out on a call, he rolled his eyes wondering what was taking Octavia so long to return from her call, surely the situation at the hospital had been resolved by now. 

“Precinct 37, rescue needs assistance at the Fell’s Point water taxi dock, a man has fallen into the water and another went in after him.” Bellamy heard Jackson’s familiar voice on the radio, he felt the urge to punch something, even Jackson had a call to go to.

“Jackson, you’re the paramedic, what do you need.” Bellamy questioned with annoyance.

“I’m the only one here and I have two victims, the other paramedics were called out to a lady in labor. I need someone to help with the victims and to drive the bus. Do you have staffing to spare?”

Bellamy saw his out, the only people left at the station were Maggie and himself, and Maggie’s driving record indicated pretty clearly she should not be allowed to drive anything larger than a grocery cart. “Hey Mags, watch the desk will ya, rescue needs some assistance. I’ll radio in later.”

Maggie was a sweet old lady who busied her time volunteering at the police station. Her husband had been a decorated officer before he was gunned down during a routine traffic stop. She was energetic for a seventy-year-old retiree and the officers loved having her around, of course that was likely linked to her famous chocolate chip cookies. 

Bellamy zipped up his heavy coat, and rushed outside. He raced to the corner of the street, Jackson arrived seconds later, Bellamy opened the driver’s side door as Jackson slide into the back of the ambulance. “Bellamy go fast but be safe, I need to get some warming solutions made.”

The tires of the ambulance dug through the deepening snow as it rushed towards Fell’s Point. The narrow streets, deep snow, and excessive amount of parked cars on the roads made the journey slow, there was certainly a reason the mayor had declared a state of emergency and had closed the roads.  
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The small water taxi bounced violently across the harbor as it rushed towards Fell’s Point. Miguel’s body convulsed as Tor’s body lifelessly bounced on the deck of the boat, Ugueth sat nearby watching for the opposing harbor’s dock to come into sight. 

“How are they? We should be there soon; I think I can see the dock.” The woman was trying to stay focused on the waters ahead but her mind, her concern was with the man who had no hope. 

“If we get them there soon, they’ll be okay. Just get us there.” Ugueth tried to hide is contempt for the situation, lucky for him that the bellowing winds muffled his voice, disguising his tone for him.

The boat pulled up to the dock, the woman quickly began to tie the boat to the dock, as Ugueth stepped onto the ramp. “Do you see the ambulance” the woman yelled.

“No. Where is Johns Hopkins hospital, is it close enough to walk to in the snow?”

“Wait, why would you walk there, the ambulance is on the way, they’ll take us there. Please help me get Tor off the boat, then I’ll help you with your brother.” Understanding that waiting for the ambulance was his best option to get to his needed destination, Ugueth stepped back onto the boat to help the woman with the body of the man he had killed.  
The woman fought to help lift Tor’s lifeless body, she struggled under the weight as she slipped on the accumulated snow on the boat’s deck. Ugueth heaved the man’s body onto his shoulder after realizing the woman’s attempted assistance was more of a hindrance than anything else. 

The woman collapsed to the ground as Ugueth flopped Tor’s body next to her. This was the first time the woman had seen Tor up close, she grabbed his shirt collar and shook his lifeless body, “Tor, hang on help is on the way, do it for Reese, you can’t let go that little girl needs you.” 

Ugueth sneered at the woman and turned back to the boat. As he approached Miguel he noticed the man was no longer alert, Ugueth bent over placing two fingers against Miguel’s neck. Miguel’s breaths were shallow and his pulse faint, he did not have much time left. Ugueth lifted Miguel over his shoulder, feeling the bitterly cold chill of Miguel pressing against his neck, and carried him from the boat, roughly dropping him to the ground next to Tor. 

The muffled sound of sirens could be heard in the distance. Ugueth focused on the moment at hand, he knew he needed to sell this story, soon he felt the stinging burn of tears in his eyes. He allowed a few tears to streak down his cheek, leaving a freezing trail in their wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who is reading, giving kudos, bookmarks, and comments. Your feedback and support is greatly appreciated.


	4. Blacked Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you to everyone who is reading, commenting, bookmarking and giving kudos. We’ve had a rough week in this fandom, I just want you to know I have no intention of eliminating our leading ladies. There will be slow burn and angst, but no “damn I meant to kill her but killed you instead moments.”

Bellamy slowed the ambulance to a stop as close as possible to the dock. “Jackson, we cannot wait here long, the ambulance will get stuck.” Bellamy stepped into the rear of the ambulance to help Jackson with the stretcher and supplies. “Bellamy, we can’t wheel this through the snow, we are going to have to carry it.” Jackson was right, the snow was far too deep to push the small wheels of the stretcher through. Together they grabbed the stretcher and trudged towards the water.

Within seconds they had come across the shivering foursome of Ugueth, Miguel, Tor, and Shalene. “Oh please, please help, they fell into the water they need your help.” Shalene called out to Bellamy and Jackson. Her lips were blue and complexion pale; she had been out in the cold for far too long. 

“Ma’am, you need to start warming up, can you walk to the ambulance unassisted?” Jackson recognized the signs of hypothermia and knew the woman needed to start rising her body temperature.

“Yes” she said as her voice quivered with her shivering body. The woman stood, her body never reaching its full extension, she looked like a partially frozen piece of meat, semi-malleable but mostly stiff. 

Bellamy turned to the man the woman had been hovering over, “Jackson this guy is dead, there is no chance of saving him, he’s gone.”

“Bellamy, we can’t leave the guy here. He’ll be buried in the snow, it’ll be days, if not weeks till they’ll be able to recover the body.”

“Jackson, we have two more people to get in that ambulance, let’s check the other two then decide what to do with this one.”

Ugueth walked over to Bellamy, “you’ll take us to Johns Hopkins” the man asked in a thick accent. 

“Of course sir. We need to assess this other man and then we will leave.”

“Okay. This is my brother Miguel, he went into the water after that man. He wasn’t in the water long.”

Jackson turned his attention to Miguel, the man was blue, his pulse nearly nonexistent, his breathing exceptionally shallow. Jackson quickly inserted a needle into the man’s arm and began an I.V. providing a warming solution. “Bellamy, help me get this man onto the stretcher. Sir, I know you are cold, I know this has been very traumatizing, but are you strong enough to carry that man’s body to the ambulance.”

“I’ll try.” Ugueth stood and lifted Tor’s stiff body onto his shoulders. He felt weak but he knew to complete his mission he must help and not raise any suspicions. 

Bellamy and Jackson lifted the stretcher and walked their way through the deepening snow. They slide the stretcher into the ambulance, Shalene sat on the small bench in the back of the ambulance. 

“Sir, we have it from here, thank you for your help, you and your brother are true heroes. Please go get in the front seat, start getting warm, we’ll be leaving very shortly.” Bellamy saw a true hero, a man who helped a stranger and even when weak continued to help. 

“Jackson what are we going to do with this man?” Bellamy stared at the lifeless body trying to figure out what they could do with it.

“Unlock the stretcher, I’ll hold it against the bench, that should provide us just enough floor space to slide his body in on its side. It’s not the most dignified body recovery, but it’s the only option we have.”

“Let’s do it.” The two men worked quickly adjusting the position of the stretcher to fit the lifeless body in the ambulance.

Jackson stepped into the back of the ambulance, Bellamy slammed the doors shut, and then entered the ambulance, sliding behind the steering wheel. He put it into drive and prayed it had not yet become stuck. After a moment of hesitancy, the ambulance began to pull forward in the heavy snow. 

“How long till we get to Johns Hopkins?” Ugueth had asked no questions about his brother’s condition. Bellamy found the man’s point of focus to be odd, but assumed it was because of cultural differences. 

“The snow is deep; the drive will be slow but it shouldn’t take too long. Do not worry we will make sure you and your brother receive the best care possible.”  
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“Lexa, can you talk? Lexa come in?” Monty called into his headset. He needed to speak with Lexa, he wasn’t sure what was going on but he needed to give her an update. 

Lexa shifted in the recliner, grabbing at her now aching arm. She wondered how long she’s slept for, across the emergency room she could see a maintenance worker cleaning up small pools of blood, she must’ve only been asleep for a short time. She scanned over the department, but did not see the person she was looking for “where had Clarke gone to now? She is certainly one who likes to keep busy, another key attribute,” Lexa thought to herself. 

“Lexa, are you there? I need you to get somewhere you can talk this is urgent.” Monty’s slightly panicked voice yanked Lexa alert from her groggy state. After another scan of the area she closed the door to the casting room, and adjusted the small radio in her ear. 

“Monty what’s going on?”

“Lexa, we’ve got to figure out a better way to stay in contact, these delays are not going to work.”

“I know how to run an op, just give me the damn update, that’s your job.” Lexa was irritated and firm in her response. She knew her job, she knew what to do, and she knew the importance of communicating with her handler, she did not need a lecture, especially from someone who had never even been in the field. 

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, it’s just, more cameras have been blacked out. Whoever is doing this knows this hospital, they know the blind spots in the security cameras. This is not a tech person, Lexa, it’s not remote access, this person is getting within an arm reach of the camera and spraying something over the lens. From the texture it looks like something tacky, like a sealant or foaming caulking or something, it’s weird Lexa. It’s not a material you’d plan to use, it’s a material of convenience, but the person’s ability to navigate around the camera indicates a planned approach.”

“Monty, how much access do you have to Hopkins records, patient files specifically?”

“With permission, just to the server with your file on a strictly navigated path, so basically nothing.”

“Does Indra know about the cameras? And how much access can you get and how quickly can you get it?”

“She knows about the parking garage cameras only. In a few seconds I can access all of it, but you and I both know Indra will be pissed if she finds out, we told her you wouldn’t interfere.”

“I know, but this is spreading, I’ll find her and update her but first access the patient charts from last night till this morning. Look for a patient admitted in the E.R. with burns, find out his father’s info on the chart.” Lexa knew her direction to Monty would upset Indra as she did not like being pushed to the backseat while someone else dictated actions regarding the safety of her people. She would have to find Indra, she would have to explain things to her. Lexa paced the casting room waiting for Monty to come back with information. 

“Okay, I’m in. I have three with burns, one looks like child abuse, child admitted with several cigar burns on her legs, arms, and stomach; another was burned when she dropped a pot of boiling water on herself; and the third was due to fireworks.”

“That one, the last one. The patient was a male, so it must be the last one.”

“Got it, patient name is Skyler Moore, father is Richard Moore. Parents are divorced, there’s no contact information for the mother just a name Kathleen. Father is a plumber, works for Roto-Rooter. Father’s medical record shows he’s been brought in by the police a couple of times for a blood alcohol analysis. The mother has a patient file, shows she’s had treatment for a broken nose, broken ribs, bruised jaw, fractured wrist, it’s a real train wreck. The hospital staff reported that they thought domestic abuse but the patient would not confirm.”

“Stop, go back. Did you say the father was a plumber, like someone who might have access to an adhesive or foaming spray to fix pipes readily? With as often as his wife seemed to be here it’s possible he could have some understanding of the camera’s pathways.”

“I’ll do some more digging into this guy. He definitely reads as violent.”

“Do that. Now, tell me more about the cameras we’ve lost.” Lexa needed to know where this man had been, so she knew how to best protect Clarke.

“All cameras in the parking garage are out. The cameras on the exterior of the emergency room are out. Cameras throughout the emergency room are out. Cameras by the patient waiting rooms and locker rooms are out. Two of the elevator’s cameras are out. Cameras are out throughout several corridors, Zayed Tower is pretty much all out, Lexa, there’s no rhyme or reason to this, it’s like the person is just randomly walking throughout the hospital blackening out cameras. It’s not really isolated, though the emergency room department and surrounding areas are the most impacted.”

“Are any cameras blacked out in or near the burn unit or pediatrics?”

“The burn unit is clear, but pediatrics is pretty much all out. The path from Zayed Tower to the pediatrics wing is all dark. The camera on the nurse’s station is good but the patient hallway is out. Lexa, what are you thinking?”

“This Richard Moore guy threatened Clarke today, the areas you’re mentioning, except for the outside cameras is where Clarke and I walked today. Earlier she had a page up to pediatrics. This guy is after her, we have to protect her.”

“Wait, Clarke? Are you talking about Clarke Griffin your…”

“Yes” Lexa cut Monty’s words short as she realized she had no idea where Clarke was, “Monty, I lost her! She had a patient come in, in an ambulance, she put me in a side room and I lost her where is she?”

“Her cellphone tracking shows she’s in the locker room.”

“You mean in the area where all the fucking cameras are out?”

“Shit! Lexa, are you close?”

“I’m already on my way.”  
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“Whoa speedracer, no need to run through an empty hospital unless you’re aiming for another injury you’ll refuse to explain to your doctors.” Wells shouted after Lexa, he found her to be infuriating, she found him to be a pompous ass. Lexa offered no response to Wells, she wanted to downsize his ego but Clarke’s safety was her utmost concern at this moment, she’d deal with him later. 

As she rounded the corner to the hallway with the door to the locker room, she paused briefly and removed the small handgun from the holster attached to her ankle. The loose pant material, which flared only slightly on the lower leg, perfectly concealed her holstered firearm. She took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open. Using the door to guard her back she turned to the right, pointing her pistol in the same direction. The room was dimly lit, the black leather couch sat empty in the corner, showing years of wear and tear. Near the couch was an old table with a few chairs, against the far wall sat a fridge and a microwave sat on the counter. Nothing seemed odd. She scanned from right to left, noticing some locker doors stood open. On a small wooden bench sat a small black duffle bag. Lexa walked towards the bag and examined its contents. She shifted a shirt to the side revealing Clarke’s hospital security badge. Clarke’s phone was on the bench and was lit up as if recently used. She picked up the phone, her thin fingers stuck to the back, she placed the phone down and tried to wipe the tacky substance onto her pants. As she walked past the open lockers noticing the contents were shuffled about and several of the lockers appeared to have a similar tacky substance on them.

Lexa continued her search of the locker room as she could hear a shower running. Lexa quietly pushed open the shower room door, again using the heavy wooden door to cover her back. Steam filled the area. She looked to the right. A large mirror filled a portion of the wall, with a row of sinks below it. Messaged on the steamed glass were the words, “You’re Mine” Lexa turned on her heels scanning the room. No one else appeared to be in the room. She walked down the small isle of showers. The only shower in use was the last shower on the left. She checked each shower stale as she walked down the aisle. Each stale was as empty as the last, its curtain pulled to one side revealing the vacant shower area. When she reached the final stale, she could see the curtain was pulled across the area, concealing anyone who may be within. 

Lexa bent cautiously and confirmed only one person was in the shower. She let out a breath she did not realize she had been holding in, Clarke was safe, but someone else had definitely been here. Lexa stepped away from the shower and caught a momentary glimpse of Clarke through the small crack between the curtain and the shower stale wall, she quickly turned away and walked towards the mirror.

Her heart raced, while her glimpse was mere seconds and completely unintentional the image was etched into her mind. Clarke’s soft curves contrasted against the sharpness of her hip bones. Lexa could not shake the image of water racing along the lush curves of Clarke’s breasts, how the water danced down her back and rolled over her perfectly rounded butt. Lexa tried to erase the image from her mind as she swallowed hard. Lexa wiped the message from the mirror hoping the steam would fill in the space before Clarke stepped out of the shower. Lexa wanted to spare Clarke from the worry of harm until she knew what the risk was that they were facing. 

As she walked back through the locker room she closed the open lockers noting each number as she closed the door. She scanned the area once more assuring no one else was in the locker room. She holstered her gun and stepped out of the locker room and right into Indra.   
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“Lexa, what were you doing in the doctor’s locker room?” Indra appeared uneasy to see Lexa lurking about in her hospital. “Come with me.” It was not a question, or even a statement, it was a command. It had been a while since Lexa had received a command from Indra. However, she still knew not to question Indra, she knew she would have to face this conversation soon or later, she just hoped it would be later. 

Indra walked into an empty room, Lexa followed without question. “Now Lexa, what’s going on?”

“Indra I know you have questions but just give me one second.” “Monty, you there?” Indra glared at Lexa in frustration, she wanted answers and did not have time to wait for this conversation “Listen Lexa…”

“Lexa I’m here, what’s up?” Lexa raised her hand to silence Indra, an action she knew her former Master Sergeant would not appreciate.

“Monty, do you have any cameras with a line of sight on the doctor’s locker room?”

“What! Why do you have your handler accessing my security feeds?” Again Lexa raised her hand to silence the older woman. 

“Lexa she sounds pissed, good luck. I don’t have a camera with a direct line but I can turn the angle on the one by the nurse’s station just enough to catch a reflection of the door on the elevator.”

“Good, do that. Let me know if anyone goes in there and when Clarke comes out you keep her in your sight until I’m back with her. Also, see if you can track the camera outages, pull them all up, as soon as you see one go out let me know so I can get there.”

“Copy that. I have visual on the locker room door, no activity at this time.”

“Monty, if she’s not out in fifteen minutes let me know.”

“Will do.”

“Enough Lexa, it’s time to tell me what’s going on? Why are you here? Is the agency investigating my referral?”

“Indra, I’m sorry you’ve been left in the dark, this was not intended. As to what’s going on, I don’t know exactly. What I do know is that Richard Moore threatened Clarke this morning, he’s escaped police custody, an officer’s firearm is missing, and someone with knowledge of this hospital’s security cameras is navigating through this hospital and blackening out security cameras with some type of adhesive spray. There’s a sticky substance on Clarke’s phone, on several lockers, which have been searched, those lockers are one, seven, nine, twenty, twenty-seven, thirty-nine, and forty-three. There was also a message on the mirror in the locker room ‘You’re Mine,’ someone is after Clarke and there’s a violent massively large man missing who may be armed and previously threatened her. I came here for treatment, I stayed because she asked me too and I had nothing better to do, as for your referral, you know I can’t answer that and you know you can’t ask me about agency matters.”

“Fuck. And all of this has to happen when there is a blizzard and when I have an unguarded Saudi Arabian prince in the hospital. Lexa I cannot have this get out to the media. Whatever happens here, during this lockdown, I need to keep this under wraps, can the agency help?”

“You know whatever I do, the agency cleans up. Let me take the reins, focus your team on security for the prince and whatever happens to this person threatening Clarke, will get quietly cleaned up.” 

“Lexa you were always one of my best, I trust you with my life and the life of my squad hundreds of time, please don’t let this be the time I misplace my trust. And Lexa, if you have any alternate objectives when it comes to Clarke Griffin you better come clean, she’s an impeccable doctor, one of the best leaders I’ve ever met. She has a world of potential, do not compromise her for your own selfish gains.”

“Indra my duty comes first, you know that. I promise you I have no ill will or intentions when it comes to Clarke Griffin.” Lexa felt insulted, Indra knew how to challenge her but she knew she only did it to see Lexa’s response, to validate the truth of her words. 

“Monty, I want more information, more details, I want to know everything about Richard Moore and I want it in an hour. Indra has an unguarded Saudi Arabian prince in the hospital, reach out to intel find out if there is anything I need to be concerned about, have them search,” Lexa pushed looking at Indra to give her additional information, “Saed Ahmed” Indra told Lexa with a bit of hesitancy, “his name is Saed Ahmed. Details Monty, get them. I’ll contact you in an hour.”

“Indra I’m only trying to help, you can help me or you can interfere, that decision is yours. I recommend you let me help.”

“Share any intel you get about Ahmed, this is a PR and safety issue for this hospital. As for Moore, deal with him however you deem worthy, just don’t damage my hospital and make sure my people stay safe.”

Lexa offered only a nod as she walked out of the room. She needed to be with Clarke, she needed to make sure Clarke was safe. Lexa turned down the hallway and began to walk towards the locker room, “Monty, has she left the locker room?”

“No one has gone in or out of that locker room.”

“Thank you.” Her fire had been lit, there were no pleasantries, she was only about business now.  
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Lexa continued her march towards the locker room, her anger fuming and unwavering, she would not allow anything to happen to Clarke Griffin. A loud crash sounded down the hall to the nurse’s station in the emergency room, she turned towards the sound as she continued to walk backwards. The maintenance man, presumably just finishing his mopping of the emergency room floor, had crashed into a metal tray. 

Knowing there was no risk of threat from the direction the sound came, Lexa turned to face down the hallway and immediately walked into Clarke. Her skin with still damp from her shower, the subtle smell of coconut wafted from her golden wavy locks, her breath grazed Lexa’s neck as their bodies collided. Lexa caught Clarke before she fell to the ground, she hadn’t realized she had been walking with such force. 

Once Clarke was back to her feet and sturdy, Lexa gripped at her arm as the pain was radiating. “Lexa, are you okay? How’s your arm? We never filled your prescription, that means you haven’t had pain medication for hours you have to be in pain, I’m sorry I lapsed on treating you.”

Lexa was staring into Clarke’s deep blue eyes, the vision of Clarke showering entering her mind once again, her heart raced as Clarke’s lips moved, forming words Lexa was not hearing. “Clarke, umm. How was your shower?”

“Let’s go get you some medicine, my shower was fine.” Clarke smiled at Lexa’s seemingly absent minded state. She took her right hand and pulled her gently in the direction of the hospital pharmacy. Clarke’s shower must have relaxed her as she pulled Lexa slightly closer than a doctor would normally be with a patient. Lexa leaned into Clarke’s soft grasp, she felt comforted, for some odd reason she felt safe next to Clarke, a feeling she had never experienced. 

“Lexa, cameras are going down, outside the security office.” Lexa jolted alert at Monty’s statement. She raked her memory she knew the security office was near the pharmacy, only a few halls over. She needed to investigate, but did not want to risk taking Clarke to the same area the maniac may be, but she also couldn’t leave her alone. 

“Clarke, show me around the hospital, let’s go this way, only a slight detour?” Lexa coyly smiled at Clarke, hoping the playful smile would convince her to detour. 

“You know Lexa; I think you know a bit more about this hospital than you lead onto. But sure, I’ll amuse your request, a detour it is, where would you like to go?”

Lexa had revealed some of her hand, but it was necessary to protect Clarke, now she needed a cover. “I’ve been here a few times, I’ve had irritating doctors and have wandered the halls to escape their leering. And quite honestly, I like time with you, so this time instead of wandering the halls to escape a doctor’s leering, I want to wander the halls with a doctor I’d like to leer at.” Her checks instantly pinked at her statement, as the vision of Clarke showering entered her mind once again, she wished this was not the way she had first seen Clarke naked. She shook her head at the thought that there were other ways she wanted to see Clarke naked, “what was wrong with her” was a thought that seemed to repeat in her mind, nearly as often as the image of Clarke showering.

“Let’s go this way” Lexa turned Clarke down the hallway that led to the security office. Lexa stared into a security camera as she walked by, the lens was clear, “so what’s down this hallway?” Lexa asked the question a bit louder than she intended, she hoped Monty would get the hint.

“Lexa, no more cameras have gone down. It’s been a few minutes since the last camera went out, I’m not sure if Moore is still down the hallway. The cameras in your hallway are clear. The cameras to the east of the security office are clear, everything to the west seems to be blacked out.”

“Clarke, what is your favorite part of the hospital?” Lexa questioned as they continued to walk towards the blackout zone. 

“Hmmm, well I think my favorite part right now would be the pharmacy so I could get my favorite former patient some much needed pain medication.”

“Lexa, you’re entering the blackout zone, I no longer have visual on you.”

“Noted.” Lexa’s response was meant for Monty, but she hoped Clarke would not find the response too odd. “So, what’s the best way to the pharmacy without going back the way we came? I want to see something new.” Lexa knew the best path would be right past the security office, she hoped Clarke would take the same route.

“If we walk this way it’s nearly a straight shot to the pharmacy. Tell me Lexa, how is it that you are so familiar with this hospital. I completed med school at Hopkins, it took me two years to learn these hallways, and still sometimes I find myself lost in the old hallways. And yet you claim to have learned your way around because you’ve been a patient here a few times, I don’t buy it. When we came back to the emergency room tonight you led me, I intentionally stayed three steps behind you, you guided us back to the emergency room from Zayed Tower, you took a route different than the route I used to take us there and you took the fastest route possible. You know at first I thought you were maybe the victim of a violent relationship, something domestic, now, I’m convinced you are in a line of work that puts you in danger.”

Lexa continued to walk down the hallway, scanning the area for Moore, trying to figure out how to escape Clarke’s spot on analysis. Her observational skills were impeccable, her ability to read people was better than any trained agent she had met, Clarke was made for this. 

“Clarke, there is a time and place for everything, now is not the time or place for this discussion. I promise you.” Lexa knew there was no way to talk herself out of this situation, and she knew she didn’t want to. There was something about Clarke, she wanted to tell her the truth. 

“Lexa, you know you cannot reveal your identity, you cannot tell Clarke anything about your assignment, your purpose for being in that hospital.”

“I know that” Lexa responded to Monty irritated at him once again for telling her what her job was, “that may not sit well with you right now, but I’m asking you to trust me.” Lexa covered her random outburst.

“I don’t know why, to be honest, but I do, I do trust you Lexa. Today I watched as you let me treat other patients while you sat and waited. I listened to you console a woman you didn’t know, to tell her she honored her husband’s memory. You owed her nothing, you owe me nothing and yet, here you are. I trust you Lexa, and when you’re ready you can tell me whatever you’re willing to tell me.”

Lexa couldn’t help but smile at Clarke’s words, her observations. A sudden sneeze from behind a closed door ripped Lexa from her Clarke entrancement. She pushed Clarke against a wall, “Clarke, stay here, do not move, I’ll be right back.” Lexa knew she couldn’t tell Clarke who she is, what she does, but she also needed to make sure Moore was contained and Clarke was safe. Lexa reached for her ankle and removed her firearm. Clarke watched Lexa, analyzing every motion, intrigued by the woman who tactically approached a door.

Lexa pulled open the door, she reached her hand inside the door and flipped on the light switch, two interns, in a precarious situation was all she found. The man’s once erect penis slapped limply against his thigh at the sight of Lexa’s gun. Lexa rolled her eyes, flipped off the light and shut the door. She holstered her gun and busted out in laughter. Clarke cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out how Lexa had gone from focused intensity to comedy club attendee. 

“Lexa I’m going to move away from this wall, and come towards you, you need to tell me if you are against this decision.” Lexa’s laughter continued as Clarke walked towards her. “Care to explain what just happened in there? I’m assuming the gun wasn’t necessary.” 

“Oh it was necessary.” Lexa offered no further explanation. Clarke could not contain her curiosity, she opened the door discovering the interns sitting on the hospital bed, the girl frantically trying to help firm up the downed cowboy. “Oh shit! I’m sorry. But, have a little decency this is a hospital not a motel.” Clarke closed the door and looked to Lexa. 

In a whispering voice she asked, “did you cause the…drooping?” Both burst out in renewed laughter. Clarke stretched out her arm to help Lexa resume a standing position. “Come on, let’s go get your pain meds.” 

“All clear. I mean, yes…. let’s go get some pain medication.”  
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The ambulance slipped and slide on the snow packed roads, nearly striking several cars, today Bellamy’s driving skills were remarkable. He navigated the large vehicle on the narrow roads with care and considerable haste for the weather conditions. The weather was worsening, visibility was scarce and the depth of the snow was increasing to a nearly impassable amount. 

“Bellamy how much longer?” Jackson knew the man on the stretcher had very little time left and the woman sitting next to him was fading quickly. There was only so much he could do.

“Jackson, I think about five minutes, we’re only a couple of blocks away.” Bellamy knew it was closer to ten minutes than five but he hoped he’d be able to cut the time, hoped the roads would become less crowded with cars and he would be able to drive quicker without having to worry about hitting any parked cars.

Jackson reached for the small radio on his shoulder, “Hopkins E.R. ambulance ETA five minutes, one DOA, one with advanced hypothermia, two suffering from moderate hypothermia, copy?” Jackson waited for a response, there was nothing but radio silence. He tried again, he knew there had to be staff remaining to treat anyone that may arrive during the storm, he knew they wouldn’t close the emergency room, “would they” he thought to himself. 

Again Jackson called into his radio praying someone would answer, “This is the Johns Hopkins emergency room, affirmative on ETA five minutes.” Jackson was revealed to hear the voice on the other end, now he needed to keep the man in front of him alive until they reached the hospital.  
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Wells placed the radio down and looked for Clarke, once again he turned to paging the woman, “it’s a good thing I came back, since I’m the only person staying in the department.” “Dr. Griffin to the emergency room, inbound patients. Emergency room nursing staff please report to the emergency room, inbound patients. Dr. Marshall to the emergency room, inbound patients. All available interns to the emergency room.” Before Wells could complete his page, three nurses had arrived in the department. 

“Cheryl, get warming blankets, we have three patients with hypothermia coming in. Karen, open up trauma rooms one, two, and three, let’s keep them close together so we can help one another, we are short staff to be handling three urgent cases at once. Stephanie, get someone from the morgue up here, looks like we already have a fatality from this storm. I have a feeling this will not be the first one.”

As interns and nurses arrived Wells directed them to trauma rooms and distributed tasks among them. He assumed the more preparation he conducted the faster they would be able to treat the patients. He checked his watch, two minutes, he looked around wondering why Clarke had not arrived yet.  
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Clarke heard the page while filling Lexa’s prescription, she quickly thanked the pharmacist and turned back towards the emergency room. 

“Lexa come in.” Monty’s voice was firm; Lexa knew this was his “this is urgent” voice. Clarke was standing next to her pulling her back towards the emergency room, the one area of the hospital Lexa wanted to keep Clarke away from, especially when she had been paged there, telling Moore exactly where she would be. She had to respond to Monty, she’d have to explain a bit more to Clarke.

“What is it?” Lexa asked the generic question. Clarke looked at her with confusion, she knew Lexa had seen the prescription and she knew this particular medication had been prescribed to her. “The pain medicine? It’s Tylenol three with codeine, I saw in your record that you didn’t like opioids and that this had been prescribed before, so I stayed with this pain medication.” 

Lexa had not heard a word of what Clarke was saying, she was focused on Monty, “Lexa, there were groups of people rushing to the emergency room, but I caught a glimpse of something, or someone. I’m trying to refocus the image, make it sharper, it was from the camera pointed towards the elevators, the image is a reflection in the elevator door. The   
image looks like a man with a gun, but the man does not seem to meet the physical attributes of Moore, the image is distorted, I can’t be certain. I lost the man, but he is somewhere near the emergency room, and I’m nearly certain he’s armed.”

“Noted” was Lexa’s only response to Monty. She needed to think fast she needed to keep Clarke away from the emergency room, she could not risk walking her into this, it felt too much like a trap.

“Lexa are you okay?” Clarke looked at the woman standing next to her, she stopped walking to really look at her, something was wrong and Clarke needed to figure it out. “Lexa, what’s wrong?” She knew she needed to get to the emergency room but she still had a bit of time before the ambulance would likely arrive. 

“Clarke, you can’t go to the emergency room, it’s not safe, you need to come with me, we need to go somewhere safer.” Lexa offered no further explanation she just needed Clarke to trust her on this one. 

“Lexa, this is my job, those patients are my responsibility. They need my help; I can’t turn my back on them. Do you care to explain to me why you feel the emergency room is not safe?”

“Lexa don’t blow your cover” Monty warned. Lexa was torn, she could not give away her identity but she couldn’t risk Clarke’s safety.

“Clarke, have you forgotten about that cop? She arrested a man who threatened you, that man escaped her custody, and her service weapon is missing, he knows your name, he knows you’re an E.R. doctor, he could be waiting to hurt you, you have to stay away.” 

“Lexa, Octavia, I mean Officer Blake, has searched the area around her patrol car, she has another service weapon, she keeps an extra in the trunk of her patrol car. She’s met with Indra and is patrolling the hospital. She is looking for him, and is well aware of the threat he poses, she will find him there is no need to worry.” Clarke turned from Lexa and began to walk back towards the emergency room.

Lexa stood for a moment, she was not accustomed to being ignored, to having her concerns pushed aside. “Clarke there’s more, someone is in the hospital taking out the security cameras, look here,” Lexa pulled Clarke towards a camera she knew had been sprayed with adhesive “look at the camera, do you see the weird substance on the lens, it’s some type of adhesive spray. Several of the cameras are coated in this material. This same substance is on your cellphone, it was on lockers in the locker room, and someone wrote a message in the steam on the mirror in the shower area. Clarke, Moore, is after you, you cannot go to the E.R., it’s not safe.” Lexa was near pleading with Clarke, she had revealed nearly all of her cards, she could not lose this battle. 

“Wait, did you go through my things? Who do you work for, are you a spy for Indra or something? How did you know the man’s last name? Look Lexa,” Clarke walked up on Lexa, the taller girl stepped back until she felt her back press against a wall, “I don’t know who you are, or what your angle is, but these are my patients, my responsibilities and I will not walk away from them. You should find Kane; he can tell you where you can spend your time while you ride out the storm. Stay away from my things, I can’t believe you went through my stuff, maybe the sticky substance came from you touching it.”

Clarke whirled away from Lexa, blonde hair twisting in the air as she walked away. Her blood was boiling, Finn would do this to her, he would search her possessions, go through her phone, try to stop her from upholding her responsibilities. She would not deal with another person doing the same thing. While she felt her anger rising, she also felt a sting a disappointment.

Lexa stood against the wall stiff, she felt a hot tear roll down her cheek. Reaching up she wiped away the single tear, unsure if its presence was from her frustration or the sting of Clarke’s words. She needed to explain herself to Clarke, but explaining more would risk exposing who she was; nonetheless she had to try. She chased after Clarke, she couldn’t let this happen.

“Clarke, please listen to me.”

“Not now Lexa.” Too angry to speak, Clarke continued her march towards the emergency room.


	5. One More Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Notes: I just wanted to thank everyone who is reading, giving the story kudos, and commenting. If you have questions, concerns, comments you’d like to give without leaving a review, you can PM me or reach me at my tumblr: uninhibitedimagination.tumblr.com

Lexa watched as Clarke’s blonde hair swished through the air, leaving her holding a bottle of medication and fear of an impending crisis. She resisted the urge to follow the now infuriated doctor, knowing doing so would only bring on additional anger. She hoped the sheer volume of people now running towards the emergency room would deter Moore, “if he was going through all the trouble of taking out cameras and hiding surely he would not storm into a now busy emergency room,” Lexa reasoned with herself, pleading Moore would agree with her logic. 

Once Lexa could no longer see Clarke she radioed Monty, “Well this could be going better, wouldn’t you say?”

“You just need to James Bond the good ole doc. Lure her in with your sexual prowess and then she’ll be eating out of your hand.” Monty’s infatuation with old spy movies had certainly tainted his view of the real world. 

“Well send me over a box of candles, mood lighting, and an irresistibly romantic setting and I’ll get to work on that; or we could venture back to the real world and deal with the situation at hand. First, use that camera you have available in the emergency room and keep it focused on Clarke, if you see anything out of place let me know and I will take care of it. Second, have you informed anyone at the agency of our little situation?”

“Will do on the camera. I’ve not told anyone about the situation, I’m not exactly sure who to tell or what to tell them.”

“Thank you. And that is a valid point. Let me do some reconnaissance and we’ll figure this out together. Any details back from intel regarding the Saudi Arabian Prince?”

“Not much, all I know right now is there are actually two princes in the country. Prince Ayman Ahmed is here as well. Prince Ayman is the younger brother of Prince Saed. Saed is the next in line to take the throne. The brothers are the only leadership eligible members remaining in the Ahmed bloodline. If anything were to happen to them, the right to rule would pass to the Shammari family. Prince Saed is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, he will become King upon the death of King Bashari. If anything happens to Prince Saed, then Prince Ayman would become the Crown Prince. There are no known immediate threats made against the Ahmed family, but there are plenty of actors who could gain from a disruption in leadership, and Prince Saed has not made many friends since being designated as the Crown Prince. I’ll continue looking into it. I mentioned the situation about the prince being unguarded to Anya, she wants you to stay in the man’s range until he is on his plane leaving this country, she says we can’t risk diplomatic tensions. She also assigned Raven to tail Prince Ayman. Anya wants both to remain under surveillance until they leave the U.S., which brings me to the ‘Raven says she hates you and will cut you when she sees you’ part. She’s sitting on a rooftop in D.C. watching the embassy and it’s snowing like crazy.”

“Noted. I’ll talk to Indra about this, but tap into the hospital records, get me the details on Saed, focus cameras on his room and hall, let me know if there are any issues, or things out of place. And patch our radios into one channel, we need to be able to share intel, and then Raven can threaten me to my face, so to speak, rather than relaying them through you, if she so dares.”

“You know what Lexa, I’m going to make sure Anya assigns you like the next five Russian assignments, this is bullshit I’m freezing my metaphorical balls off, and the guy is in a secure embassy.” Raven whined with chattering teeth. 

“Come on Raven, it’s not that bad,” Lexa knew that was a lie, “Plus do you remember that North Korean delegate, he was in a secure embassy as well, and that didn’t stop you from retrieving intel, turning the guy by threatening to blow him up, and then implanting one of your cleverly designed tracking devices into him.” Lexa complimented the other agent’s success to hopefully warm her ego just enough to reduce the sound of her chattering teeth. 

“Lexa you do know how to talk to the ladies.” Raven replied in a flirtatiously sarcastic way.

“Not all the ladies,” Monty chimed in, he always struggled to remain serious when tension clouded the air.

“Monty, you will need to explain that comment to me later, because Lexa failing to sweet talk someone is something I must have in my life. And Lexa, you keep your prince safe and I’ll keep this one safe and soon we’ll load them both onto a plane and out of our worries.”

Lexa’s response was delayed as she mulled over the idea of sweet talking, of swooning Clarke. She was only trying to protect her, she hadn’t tried to swoon her, had she? She could not deny that the idea did have a tempting appeal, maybe Monty’s obsession with Bond wasn’t all that bad. 

“I need to play this one carefully, I told Indra, she’s Head of Security, to guard the prince. There’s also a deranged lunatic in the hospital after a doctor here. He’s been taking out security cameras, which is not a helping the situation, especially on top of this blizzard.”

“You know; my rooftop isn’t looking so bad now. And by Indra, are you talking about your former Master Serg Indra? The woman who reveled being in control, who fought military regs to carry a bayonet into Special Forces’ assignments because she liked to run a steel blade into those trying to kill her?” Raven let out a not so subtle laugh, “Please tell me it’s that Indra. Good fucking luck Lexa, you’re going to need it. Now about this deranged lunatic, do you think he could be a ploy, that it all could be a ploy? Maybe the doctor isn’t the target, maybe it’s a setup, maybe he’s there to take out the prince?”

“Thanks, and no. He’s not after the prince, he’s after Clarke. The guy was about to beat his son and she defended the kid. She threw him to the floor in a truly embarrassing fashion, he’s after her not the prince.”

“Clarke? Not doctor? There’s something more about this situation, I want details when this is over. So, why would this guy be taking out cameras? What’s the motive?”

“I don’t know Raven, but I can’t let anything happen to Clarke. Her possessions have been searched, he wrote ‘You’re Mine’ on a bathroom mirror while she was showering; there’s a risk to Clarke.”

“Sounds steamy. Lexa these don’t sound like something an embarrassed or vengeful guy would do; honestly, most of it sounds like something a scorned lover would do. Have you checked that angle? Why do you think it’s this Moore guy, could someone be setting him up?”

“Shit! You’re right Raven. I’ve been so distracted with Moore that I didn’t think about another person. But Moore escaped police custody, if it’s not him, where is he? I need to talk to Clarke, and Indra. Let’s get drinks after this assignment, I’m pretty sure I’m going to need it.” Lexa had hoped talking to Raven and Monty would clear some things up, unfortunately it had only raised more questions.

“Monty” 

“Sure yeah, I’d love to have drinks.”

“What? No, I need you to stay on intel, get us details on the prince situation, and I want details on Moore. I’ll check back soon.”

“Noted.” Monty slumped in his chair, for once he thought the agents were finally including him in the unofficial post-op debriefing. Since the com channels were now open, he muted his mic and pressed play on his James Bond movie, at least here he could feel more like a part of the action.

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Lexa continued walking down the hospital corridor not really sure what her next step should be, she needed a minute, she needed to stop and think. She approached a seemingly empty patient room, with a soft knock she opened the door. A man laid in the bed, his white coat and stethoscope hanging over a chair in the room. “Oh, sorry I didn’t realize anyone was in here.” Lexa’s intention was certainly not to disturb a resting doctor, knowing with the hospital locked down there was likely little sleep to be had. 

The man sat up rubbing his eyes, his dark shaggy hair was tousled and matted, his skin moist and slightly flushed in color. “No, it’s fine. I actually need to be getting back to work. You’re a better alarm clock than this old broken watch.” The man pointed to his analog watch, it appeared to be a basic enough of a watch, a black face with sliver casing; Lexa assumed it must have some sentimental value as it had absolutely no monetary value. The only other option was that the man was too cheap to fix or replace the old watch.   
The man stood from the bed and stretched, Lexa noticed his knuckles were bruising and a few of them were split open, seeping blood. “Are you a boxer, box in your free time?” Lexa inquired while pointing at the man’s hands. 

“What” the man gazed from Lexa to his hands, “Oh, umm, yeah. It’s a recently acquired hobby so to speak, sometimes you just need to punch something.” He retorted with a cautious laugh. 

“Agreed. I could use a punching bag right now.”

“Rough day?” The man asked while pointing to Lexa’s bandaged left arm.

“You could say that.” Lexa rubbed her arm acknowledging the man’s enquiring gesture.

“Well I have to get back to it.” The man slipped on his white coat and looped his stethoscope around his neck. 

“Nice to meet you Doctor Wright.”

“I’m sorry.” The man responded.

Lexa motioned across the left side of her chest, “Your jacket, it has your name.”

“Oh right, of course.” He responded quickly as walked out of the room while adjusting his jacket.

Lexa could not help but think about how odd the encounter with this random man had been. She lowered the lights in the room, sat crossed legged on the floor, and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. She needed to clear her head. 

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The emergency room was seemingly well staffed when Clarke arrived. People were standing around everywhere, there were no patients, everyone was just waiting for something to do, for someone to help. I.V. bags hung waiting to be connected to patients, warming blankets were placed on trays outside each trauma room. Everything was ready, everyone was ready, but where were the patients?

Wells leaned against the admission’s desk, as Clarke approached him he stood to greet her. “It’s going to be a long night, are you ready for this?”

“Am I ready, are you ready? How much sleep have you had in the last fifty-six hours?”

“Not enough” he admitted. Sleep was scarce during a forty-eight-hour shift, and since he returned to the hospital shortly after leaving from his forty-eight hour shift he had little opportunity to sleep.

“Where’s the ambulance? Are you sure they were coming here and not Mercy?”  
“Clarke, my father’s a cop, I’ve been listening to and playing with radios since I was like two, do you really think I would mishear or fail to understand a dispatch?” Wells response was sharp and laced with sarcasm. Clarke knew she deserved it as she was always curt with Wells when he questioned her. 

“Fair enough, what was the dispatch ETA? When did the dispatch come in?”

“ETA was five minutes” Wells had not realized so much time had passed until he checked his watch, “which was eighteen minutes ago.” It had been too long, Wells picked up the radio, he needed a status update, “Bellamy come in, what’s your ETA?”

“About a minute or so, I can see the entrance, this ambulance is sliding everywhere, I’m worried it’s going to get stuck, every time it slides it gets a little more difficult to move it forward.”

“Wells this storm is awful, if it’s taken them eighteen minutes when it should’ve been five who knows how long it took them to get to the casualties, and how long they had been driving before radioing in the call. We need to do something.” Clarke jogged towards the entrance, which sent everyone else into motion. 

She reached up unlocking the sliding doors, with Wells assistance they pushed open the doors. Through the blowing and falling snow, they could see the headlights of the ambulance down the road, its flashing lights dancing across the night sky. The ambulance slowly trudged through the deepening snow; it could be no more than fifty yards. The snow had been falling for nine hours, the falling snow and strong wind caused large drifts along the roadside. 

“Wells, they’re not going to make it, we need to help.”

“I know, let’s try to push it here, if they get stuck we’ll have to carry the patients here, we should have enough people.”

Wells and Clarke began to walk towards the ambulance, high knees and long strides seemed to be key in managing the depth of the snow; others followed understanding the situation caused by the storm. Within a minute or so they had reached the ambulance. 

Bellamy lowered the ambulance window, “what’s the plan docs” he yelled over the roaring engine and hollowing storm.

“Steer the ambulance towards the patient unloading area, under the awning, we’ll push, if that doesn’t work we’ll have to abandon the ambulance and carry the casualties in.” Clarke strained her voice trying to be louder than the ambient sounds. 

“Sounds good, but let me push, Clarke get in and drive.” Wells sneakered at Bellamy’s error, for as long as they’ve known one another, he should know better than this. Clarke would often rant to Wells about how irritating Bellamy’s big brothering of Octavia was, how it was demeaning; even though it was often unintended and aggravatingly unrecognized.   
“Bellamy I’m more than capable of pushing, just drive the damn ambulance.” Wells couldn’t help the smirk gracing his face, he loved being right and watching Bellamy take one on the chin, “what a dumbass” was his only thought.

The group of doctors, nurses, and staff, ten in all, surrounded the rear of the ambulance and began pushing it towards the hospital. It was a slow and exhausting process, but was the best option. With two more pushes they would be under the cover of the structural awning and could finally unload the patients.

Wells dug his heel in and tightened his grip on the wet bumper of the ambulance, one final push was all they needed. As the ambulance began to move his foot slipped, resulting in his hand sliding from the bumper. His left forearm caught the rounded edge of the metal bumper, leaving a gaping gash; his knee crashed hard against the ground, the blanket of snow offering no cushioning support. He could feel the blood running down his arm and the temperature change and swelling in his knee. Blood dripped from his fingers tips as he limply stood, he did not look at his arm, rather he turned back to the ambulance to finish pushing it. 

Bellamy turned off the engine and stepped out of his ambulance. As he walked to the back of the ambulance he saw the crimson stained snow, “What the fuck happened to you?” 

Clarke turned towards Bellamy, instantly spotting the blood dripping from Wells arm. “Wells, what happened, we need to get you stitched.”

“I’m fine, I’ll go bandage it, you stay here, help them and I’ll be ready in a minute.” Wells limped towards the hospital, keeping his arm in the air, trying to slow the flow of blood. Clarke watched curiously, she would check on Wells later to make sure there was nothing more to his limping. 

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Clarke and Bellamy opened the rear ambulance door feeling the warmth of a heatwave emit from the open ambulance. Jackson half stood to help a frail, nearly unconscious woman into the arms of a waiting nurse. The woman struggled to stand resulting in the burley nurse carrying the woman to the waiting stretcher just inside the door. There was no reason to make the woman try to walk through the deep snow.

“She’s suffering from exposure and likely moderate hypothermia,” sweat poured from Jackson’s face, the back of the ambulance was sweltering.

With a loud bang the passenger side door slammed against the side of the ambulance. Ugueth stumbled from the ambulance, “Is this Johns Hopkins?” His speech was slurred and his heavy Spanish accent made it difficult to understand him. Clarke walked towards the man, his body movements were clumsy, he was clearly disoriented.

“Help him into the hospital, put him in trauma three. Get me rectal temperatures on all of them. We need to know what level of hypothermia we’re dealing with here.”

Clarke turned back to Jackson, “Okay, and what happened to him” she asked while pulling on the gurney.

“He went into the water, he’s fading fast, was unconscious when we reached him.”

“They were in the water? What the hell were people doing out in the water?” Clarke checked the man’s pupils as they carried the gurney into the hospital. Miguel’s dilated eyes stared back at her blankly. His pulse was non-existent, it appeared as no breaths escaped his chest.

“Doctor Marshall, can you help with the last casualty?” He responded with a mere uncommitted grunt. Clarke followed Miguel, she needed to focus her attention on this man, the nurses and interns could start warming the other patients.

Jackson stayed with Miguel as well, he had done all he could to keep the man alive, and felt all of his efforts were for not, it had taken too long to get them here. “Doctor Griffin I did everything I could, I’m sorry it wasn’t enough. We didn’t get to them fast enough to save the first man; I didn’t want to lose another.” Jackson was like Clarke when it came to death, he never dealt well with losing a life, he wanted to save lives, that’s why he became a paramedic, but today the weight of loss overwhelmed him, this was his first and only call of the day and he’d lost two lives.

Clarke heard Jackson’s devastation and continued to work on Miguel, “Listen Jackson, hypothermia is sneaky, it slows the body so much the person appears dead, they may not be, they’re not dead until they’re warm and dead, okay? You did a great job. This man has a chance and that is only because of you.” Clarke did not have the time to soothe Jackson, but she wanted him to know he was not to blame for this outcome. 

As Clarke treated Miguel she remembered her first hypothermia patient, a ten-year-old little girl. She was lifeless when she arrived. Her dark skin, tinted with a blue hue. She’d been ice skating on a small pond on her family’s property, the forty-degree weather had thinned the ice. She fell through the ice, the family dog was the one to pull her from the water and drag her onto land. Clarke loved the Lassie like tale. She spent hours with that little girl, monitoring her body temperature, watching as her color slowly returned. It was one of her favorite outcomes, she knew hypothermia was a vicious condition. She would not lose a patient to it, she knew how to treat it. 

“Replace these blankets with warm ones, what’s the body temp at?” Clarke continued to cut away at the man’s remaining clothing, stripping the soaking material from the man’s body. His body was freezing to the touch, his muscles rigid from his prolonged shivering, which had now ceased. 

“Doctor his body temp is eight-one point six degrees.”

“Okay, we need to warm him slowly, we can’t risk sending his body into shock by warming him too quickly. Keep the fluids going and switch the blankets every forty-five minutes. I want a temp update every time you change a blanket. If anything changes let me know. I’ll be back to check his status later.” Clarke walked out of trauma one and into trauma three. There was no need for her to linger over this patient as there was nothing more she could do. 

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“What’s the body temperature.” Clarke demanded as she continued making notes in Miguel’s chart.

“We don’t have a temp.” The nurse reported with an irritated and somewhat fearful tone. Clarke looked up from Miguel’s chart, the nurse stood beside the gurney as Ugueth leaned against it on the other side. In the nurse’s hand was a recently lubricated thermometer, while Ugueth maintained a death grip on his pants. 

“Sir, you’re suffering from hypothermia, you need treatment, for me to know how to treat you I need to know what your temperature is. There are only two ways to get an accurate reading, incubating you or using a rectal thermometer.”

“No! I’m fine, just cold, help my brother, I have things to do.”

“Sir your body is not fine, your motions are jerky, which is why you cannot stand without leaning, your speech is slurring, your brain is too cold to process fine motor skills.” Clarke looked into the man’s dark eyes, she knew he would not acquiesce to the rectal temperature. Standing in front of her was a strong willed man, his chiseled physique told her he was active and proud. When a patient refused treatment it was often because of their pride. She needed to compromise with this man in order to treat him. 

“Let’s do an oral temperature, if it comes back above ninety degrees, then no rectal, but if it is below ninety, then you agree to the rectal temperature.” Clarke walked across the trauma room, she motioned for the man to sit on the bed as she wheeled the pulse ox monitor over. “Please sit, let us help you.”

Ugueth stared at Clarke’s white coat, the words John’s Hopkins burned into his mind, he had a job to do, but needed to keep suspicions off of him. He could not risk his op, there were bigger issues at hand. He was also aware that the only way he would be able to physically complete his op was to accept this treatment, he assumed within an hour he would be able to walk again without leaning. 

“Body temperature is ninety-two point eight degrees doctor.” The nurse remained uneasy as she relayed the temperature to Clarke. She had only been working in the emergency room for a few weeks, she constantly found herself surprised by the patients she encountered. Her small size and young age often made her feel woefully unprepared and incapable of managing confrontational patients. 

“Carol, can you please have someone get some patient files started on these guys. I would like to use their actual names on these charts. You did a great job in there, there will always be difficult patients, never let them scare you. They are terrified in this situation, they have lost control and are fighting against allowing someone else to take over. Keep firm and understanding with them.”

“Yes, doctor. Thank you.”

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Clarke walked across the small hallway and into trauma two, she held out hope that Dr. Marshall or Wells had already treated the female patient. She was beginning to feel the exhaustion of her day, she had been going for twenty hours with limited breathing time; however, the time she had been given had been long enough to tire her. She much preferred the constant rush to the stop and go. 

“Hello ma’am, are you starting to feel a bit warmer?” The woman’s complexion was frighteningly pale with hints of blue, which stood in stark contrast against her blazing red hair. 

“Yes doctor. I’m very tired and worried about Tor. He was so blue, and he hasn’t spoken since he was pulled from the water. Doctor, I don’t think anyone has treated him, they just laid him on the floor of the ambulance. He needed help and they didn’t give him any. Please doctor, please help him, his daughter and wife need him, they can’t live without him. Please help him, no one else will. The woman’s strained voice exuded sheer panic. 

“I’m sure someone is helping him, please let me treat you first, then I’ll check on him.” Clarke tried to calm the patient, to reason with her, it appeared to have no effect as tears filled the woman’s eyes. “Nurse get me a temp, and change out these blankets. I’m going to make sure someone has treated, Tor, right?” Clarke questioned to assure she was recalling the correct name. It was an odd name but strikingly familiar sounding. The woman nodded her head as she wiped tears from her face. “I’ll be right back.” Clarke wanted to comfort her patient but her reassuring words meant nothing, as the woman’s only concern was for her friend. 

For a day with relatively few patients she felt overwhelmed by the sheer range of emotions the day had brought. Clarke looked around the emergency room, she wasn’t sure what she was looking for but couldn’t deny her feeling of disappointment when she did not see Lexa’s familiar smile. She quickly shook the idea from her thoughts, how could a smile of a complete stranger have become so familiar.

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Clarke walked into trauma four only to find it empty, she turned back towards the nurse’s station wondering where the fourth patient had gone. From her position, Clarke could see Wells and Marshall in triage three, certainly they would know the patient’s status.

Marshall sat on a stool steadfastly focused on stitching the deep laceration on Wells’ forearm, he was rushed and messy in his efforts, which would certainly leave Wells with a vivid scar. 

“Doctor Marshall, the fourth victim, where is he? His friend is worried about him; she says no one has treated him.”

“She should be, he’s dead. Was DOA, I called it about an hour ago, as soon as he was carried into the E.R. The paramedic says he was DOA when they arrived at the scene, but he can’t make the official call, they only brought him here, instead of calling a corner because the body would have been buried in the snow. We put the body in trauma six, the morgue should be sending someone up soon to collect the body.”

Clarke was shocked by the callous response she received. Frank Marshall had been in his second year of medical school when started her first year. He had always been kind and compassionate, a man who wanted to be a doctor to serve the public, what had changed him. “When did you become so callous Frank? A man just died and you’re just sitting here butchering Wells’ arm. Seriously Wells, an intern could have done a better job.”

“Fuck off Clarke, I hook you up with my boy and then you burn Finn like that. It’s messed up, he would’ve done anything for you and you just pushed him aside when he needed you the most. You’re a manipulative bitch, he gave up his career, his future for you, and you broke him.”

Clarke stood there stunned by Frank’s tirade, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she wondered what Finn could have said to Frank to turn his behavior towards her to such vile resentment. She realized his cold response about the patient was not reflective of his feelings about the patient, but about his feeling for her. She had no response to his cruel retort, she stood speechless, hot tears burning at her eyes. 

As Frank clipped the final stitch in Wells’ arm, Wells balled up his right hand into a fist and swung his arm, his fist connected squarely against Frank’s jaw. The force of the punch sent the man sprawling across the room, he was out cold.

“Oh shit, Wells, thank you, but you could get in trouble for this.” As stunned as Frank’s words had left her, it did not compare to her shock of seeing Wells send the man flying. She had known Wells since she was young, he was such a pacifist, the idea of him resorting to violence was not consistent with the person she knew.

“I’ll have Terry help me get him into a bed, and I’ll check him for a concussion, but I swear to God if Frank wakes up with the same attitude I’ll knock him out again. Clarke, Finn was a self-destructive, obsessive, control freak, who essentially stalked you. His behavior, his actions are not your fault. You deserve to be happy and to be in a healthy relationship. Finn was not that Clarke. Earlier today I saw you smile in a way I haven’t seen since your father died, you deserve to be with someone who makes you smile like that every day.”

Wells words were coated in sincerity, Clarke knew she had been unfair to him since her father had passed, Wells was a good man. “Thank you Wells.” She looked to the floor uncertain of what to say next, an apology nor an “I’ll do better,” were sufficient or necessary, Wells had always been her best friend and had never expected more from her. He’d always just wanted her friendship. “I need to go check on the patients.”

Wells smiled at Clarke, he had known her long enough to know the intent behind her words. “I’ll get Frank into a bed and get some ice on his jaw, then I’ll come help.”

“Thanks Wells, for everything.” It was a simple thank you but to Wells it was everything he wanted to hear. Since the night he’d told Clarke the truth about her father’s death, she had distanced herself from him, finally he felt like the distance between them was closing.

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Clarke walked towards the red-headed woman in trauma two, she hated to deliver news like this. The weight of the looming conversation slowed her pace. Ideas, words race through her mind, as she approached the door, Michelle stepped out of the room. 

“Doctor Griffin, here is the patient’s chart. Her body temp is ninety degrees; her heart rate is up to sixty beats per minutes. I think she’s eager to hear about her friend. Her name is Kathleen, she works for her friend, she calls him Tor. She asked for a phone to call her wife, she doesn’t want her to worry.”

Clarke had always appreciated the level of detail Michelle provided. Michelle’s details revealed her personal connection to each person she helped and provided Clarke with tidbits of information about her patients that no patient file would elucidate. Clarke swallowed the lump in her throat, she was about to disrupt this woman’s, Kathleen’s life.

“Thank you Michelle, please stay with me to talk to the patient.”

Michelle’s dark hand grasped Clarke’s arm, she had worked with Clarke long enough to know why Clarke asked her to stay. 

Clarke stepped into the trauma room, hopeful blue eyes met hers, she watched as the hope turned to despair, Clarke’s body language had already told the woman the one thing she did not want to hear.

“Kathleen, when the paramedics arrived to the water front Tor was already gone. There was nothing they could do. His body had been exposed to the cold for too long, when he arrived in the emergency room, Dr. Marshall confirmed Tor’s status and called time of death at 12:34 a.m. Kathleen you did everything you could to give Tor the best chance to survive, unfortunately, his body could not handle the exposure.” Clarke moved towards the woman who wept uncontrollably. “Someone will be here soon to take his body; do you want to see him before they take him?”

Clarke’s eyes scanned the freckled pale face, tears still streaming, her heart ached for this woman, she knew the pain of losing someone, a pain that still haunted her. “Yes……I……would……. like……... that.” Kathleen said through her continued sobbing.

Clarke folded back the warming blanket and helped the woman stand. As Kathleen’s knees buckled Clarke motioned to Michelle for a wheelchair. With Clarke’s assistance, Kathleen sat in the wheelchair, her muscles shook, Clarke could feel the woman’s pulse race as she loosened her grip on Kathleen’s thin wrist. Clarke was not sure if the woman’s reactions were from her hypothermia or from the emotional situation. She wheeled Kathleen towards trauma six, the wheelchair shook in Clarke’s grasp from Kathleen’s sobs.

Clarke stopped the wheelchair next to the hospital bed, the form of the man was hidden beneath a white sheet, Kathleen slipped her hand beneath the sheet and grabbed Tor’s lifeless hand. “He’s so cold,” was all the woman could muster. 

Clarke pulled back the sheet, folding it down onto the man’s chest. As she looked back at the face she’d just uncovered her stomach sank. She knew this man. His name had sounded familiar because she had treated his daughter countless times in the past. She could see Reese’s halfcocked smile, the one she reserved for her father. She could hear the young girl’s carefree laugh, the sarcastic responses. She knew this family. Reese suffered from Childhood Interstitial Lung Disease, her chronic illness resulted in her frequenting the hospital. She was here only three days ago with acute bronchitis. Clarke swallowed the choking lump in her throat and pushed back the tears that were once again burning at her eyes. 

“I just don’t understand doctor, Tor was in the water no longer than the other man, and yet he died before he even had a chance. I don’t understand how are they different?”

“Everyone will react differently to hypothermia; his body just wasn’t able to fight the cold.” Clarke spoke as she looked at the man, something seemed out of place to her. “I’ll make sure an autopsy is performed, it may provide more answers.” The shadow of a gangly man standing outside the trauma room door distracted Clarke, the morgue attendant had finally arrived to collect Tor’s body. “Kathleen, they’re here to take Tor, I’ll have Michelle stay with you, you let them know when you’re ready.”

“Thank you Doctor Griffin.” Clarke only offered a gentle smile in response. Michelle reached out and squeezed Clarke’s arm an offering of comfort, Michelle understood how hard death was for Clarke. 

Clarke stepped out of the room and slid the door shut. “Give her some time Jasper, and when you get him down to the morgue have Doctor Ichs perform an autopsy as soon as possible. The suspected cause of death is hypothermia, I’m not certain about that.”

“Sure thing Clarke.” Jasper was a goofy kid, but Clarke appreciated his lack of regards for formalities, she really did not like being called Doctor Griffin.

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Bellamy leaned over the admissions desk overtly flirting with Avery, a mousy faced intern. She twisted her finger through her hair and batted her eye lashes as Bellamy replayed the story of his part in the courageous rescue of the hypothermia patients. He unraveled the tale of his precision driving, how he barreled through the snow packed streets laughing in the face of the treacherous storm. Avery clung to his every word, his courage fascinated her and his physique sparked her interest. 

“So it looks like we’ll be stuck here for a while.” Bellamy drew out his words as his eyes followed along the curves of the young woman.

“Yeah, this storm sure is bad. I wonder how long we’ll be stuck here.” Avery smirked as she stared slightly below Bellamy’s belt buckle.

“It’ll be long enough.” Bellamy retorted as he reached out his hand and brushed it against Avery’s face, tucking a lock of loose hair behind her ear. 

The sight was nauseating, Clarke approached in an attempt to save this intern from making the same mistake of so many others, “Nice to see you Detective Blake, how’s Nicole, I mean Megan, or wait is it Gina, there’s been so many, I struggle to keep track.”

Clarke’s words pulled Avery from Bellamy’s trance, “oh, I just remembered I need to go check on a patient.” The young intern walked away, turning briefly to send Bellamy a flirtatious wink. 

Clarke had no impact on Avery’s opinion of Bellamy, but that did not prevent him from playfully questioning Clarke’s words, “Not cool Clarke, I don’t mess with your game, why do you need to interfere with mine?”

“One, you could never mess with my game, which reminds me you still owe fifty bucks, and two, I’ve had to treat four women for crabs after they slept with you, please tell me you’ve fixed that problem.”

“Hey, she didn’t count, she was a lesbian, I had no chance, and that was two years ago, I’d definitely beat you now. Seriously pick any girl, and I bet I sleep with her before she even gives you the time of day, double or nothing. As for the crabs, could you not talk about that so loudly and one of those women gave it to me first, and yes the issue has been resolved.”

“Good to hear. So any woman, my choice?”

“Yeah, but you can’t pick someone you know is a lesbian.”

“You’re on.” Making bets with Bellamy was just the distraction she needed. 

“Hey, have you seen my sister? She hadn’t reported back to the station before I left.”

Clarke knew the answer but her loyalty, her friendship to Octavia required her to carefully respond to Bellamy. He always overreacted when it came to Octavia. “She’s still here, there was an incident and Indra needed her to stick around. Plus, with the storm, it seemed like the safer alternative.” Clarke decided to tell a selective truth to Bellamy.

“Oh, well where’s the guy she was supposed to arrest, you’re not keeping him in that tiny holding room until the storm passes, are you?”

Clarke rubbed the back of her neck pondering her next response, “No, he’s not in the holding room.” Keep it simple was the only thought that came to mind.

“So where’s Octavia?”

“Not entirely sure, Indra has her doing something.”

“Well Indra is not her boss. Would you page her? I need to update our status with the station, but I need to actually know her status before I can give an update.”

“Sure” Clarke wished there was a way to warn Octavia about what she would be walking into; hopefully she’d found Moore and her service weapon by now. 

“Officer Blake to the Emergency Room, Octavia Blake to the Emergency Room.” Perhaps using the two differing names in the page would alert Octavia of her brother’s presence. It was Clarke’s only idea.

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“Officer Blake to the Emergency Room, Octavia Blake to the Emergency Room.” The resounding page pulled Lexa from her meditating state. “Fuck.” Lexa stood from her seated position, her heart raced, her mind swarmed with possibilities. “Fuck, Blake was looking for Moore, Moore wants Clarke, she’s in the Emergency Room, Blake is being paged to the Emergency Room, Moore must be in the Emergency Room. He’s going to hurt Clarke.” The thought continued to play over and over again in her mind. 

“Monty, come in. Monty I need a status report on the E.R. Monty, where the fuck are you?” 

“Christ Lexa, why the fuck are you yelling?”

“Not now Raven, when did you last hear from Monty?”

“Not since we all talked, the com channels are open you would’ve heard us. He probably just went to the bathroom.”

Lexa ran through the halls, she felt turned around, the map of the hospital ran through her mind as she struggled to focus. “I need Monty, damnit. Monty come in.”

Lexa recognized the location of the elevators as she walked past, the Emergency Room was down the hall to her left as was a familiar woman wearing a police uniform. While the woman’s casual walk should have calmed Lexa, it only infuriated her as there was an armed man on the loose and this woman was to blame, how could she be so cavalier. Lexa harnessed her energy and slowed her pace to match Octavia’s. For a moment she considered pulling her weapon before entering the Emergency Room department, but decided against it. 

“O, what happened to your face?” Bellamy ran to his sister upon seeing her bruised and stitched face

“I’m fine Bellamy” Octavia side glanced Clarke, annoyance thoroughly coating her glare. Clarke mouthed a wary apology before Octavia’s attention diverted back to her brother. 

Bellamy took Octavia’s face in his hands and turned her head back and forth examining her for any additional injuries. “Sixteen stitches, shit O, what the fuck happened?”

Before Octavia could respond Indra, along with Kane, interrupted the conversation, with Lexa standing close behind them. “We need to talk, follow me.” Once again Indra did not ask, she commanded.

“Indra, I need to speak with my sister, she’s my responsibility and you’re not our boss.” While Bellamy had an appreciation and respect for Indra, his ego had a way of turning him into a bit of an ass. 

Indra stepped up to Bellamy nearly pressing her chest into his, she stared at him with fire in her eyes, “Follow me, now!” She turned from him and walked in the direction of the conference room, without hesitation Octavia followed Indra. Bellamy stood in defiance but it was only briefly, within seconds he tucked his figurative tail between his legs and followed as ordered.

“You too Lexa.” Indra called over her shoulder.

Lexa looked to Clarke hoping to find the anger had subsided, instead she was greeted with a stern and unreadable look, with no signs of encouragement, she too turned and followed after Indra, she held her head high, even though she couldn’t deny her feelings of defeat.

Clarke’s spirits had lifted when she first saw Lexa behind Octavia, but the feeling was fleeting and all but disappeared when Indra summoned Lexa. It reminded Clarke of how Lexa had been like Finn, how she had searched through her things and asked her to ignore her patients.

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Harper and Lincoln stood waiting in the conference room, as Indra walked into the room the two straightened their stance. The small group filed into the conference room, each moving to a different part of the room. Octavia stayed near Indra, while Bellamy tried to put as much space as possible between himself and the controlling woman. Lincoln looked cautiously at Octavia obviously noticing the injury to her face. She greeted his look of concern with a noncommittal smile, she would need to explain things to him later. 

“I’ve spoken with Chief Jaha, he’s granted me the use of any officer’s in my hospital to help secure and protect the patients and staff of this hospital. Quite literally, I am your boss now” Indra asserted herself while maintaining eye contact with Bellamy until he looked away. “Also joining our group is Lexa, she’s been assigned here to help and that is all you need to know about her.” Indra paused momentarily expecting some form of objection or questioning, instead her pause was greeted with silence. “Beyond the general requirements of keeping our patients safe, we have two additional pressing matters. First, we have a diplomatic delegate as a patient,” seeing mouths open to ask questions, Indra raised her hand to promote continued silence, “who he is and his business in this country are of no concern to us. We recently moved him to a secure floor and have constant surveillance on him. You will all rotate shifts of guarding this particular floor. For now, it will rotate between Lincoln and Harper, alternating every six hours. When not guarding this particular floor, you will be walking the halls of this hospital. I know we are tired, we need sleep but until we resolve our second issue, sleep will not be allowed. This morning a man accosted Doctor Griffin. Since then he attacked Officer Blake.” Both Bellamy’s and Lincoln’s heads whipped to look at Octavia. Lincoln’s face was etched with concern, while Bellamy’s reflected a sense of duty.

Indra ignored the disruptive movements and continued, “When Officer Blake was attacked, her service weapon was stolen.” Octavia’s cheeks pinked with embarrassment, though she was grateful for Indra’s matter-of-fact tone, there was no accusing or disappointment. “We have searched the area of the attack and have been searching the hospital, as of now we have not been able to find even a trace of this man. He may have left this building, he may still be here hiding, at this time we do not know. We do know some of the hospital’s security cameras have been taken out and since this man went after Doctor Griffin and Officer Blake there’s reason to believe he may attack again.” Indra turned to Octavia and Bellamy, “Detective, Officer I want you two to find this man, Lexa you will stay with Doctor Griffin and keep her safe. If any of you need to report anything we’ll use the following codes; code name Guardian for the diplomat, and code name Alcatraz for Moore, the escapee.”

“Any questions?”

Bellamy began to speak but was cut off by Kane, “Detective Blake that was more of a rhetorical request. I just wanted to say I appreciate all of your assistance, remember our first priority is our patients. Everyone is stuck here, the last thing we need is to cause a panic throughout the hospital. So no pulling guns on innocent people,” Kane stared at Lexa with a knowing look, “we cannot have the patients or staff knowing about Moore, the only other people who know are doctors Jaha and Griffin, let’s keep it that way. Here are hospital radios, keep these with you at all times and keep them on secure channel six, any updates you give will be through these radios, no more hospital wide pages.” Kane handed a radio to Bellamy, Octavia, and Lexa. As Lexa reached for her radio, she made eye contact with Bellamy, his only thought was a wishful thought that Clarke would choose this woman for their little bet. 

“Dismissed.” Indra’s final words were firm, she walked from the room and turned off the lights, there would be no mistaking that the meeting was over.

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Clarke was once again left standing alone allowing her to use the opportunity to check on her patients. Both men’s body temperatures were rising, slowly but an increase was all she needed to see. She noted their charts and went to check on Kathleen. Rather than walking into trauma two, Clarke walked towards trauma six upon seeing Jasper leaning against the wall. 

“Jasper, thank you for giving her so much time. I’ll see if I can get her back to her room.”

“Thanks Clarke, I didn’t want to upset her, I don’t do well with crying women.”

“This we all know, all too well, remember the fiasco at the Christmas Party with Maya, you were a bumbling mess, which was hilarious. This girl is crying because she said yes to marrying you and you look to everyone else to help you make the tears stop.”

“That was not my finest moment.”

Clarke smiled at Jasper while composing herself to speak with Kathleen. She stepped into the room to find Kathleen with tear stain streaked cheeks, holding up Michelle’s phone talking into it. Michelle stood from the chair next to Kathleen and walked over to Clarke. 

“Her body temp is up to ninety-six degrees; she’s rebounding quite nicely. I let her use my phone to FaceTime her wife, Karyn. They are neighbors to the Lemkins. She wanted to tell Suzanne and Reese about Tor, she wanted to save them from their continued worry. I hope you don’t mind that I let her.”

“Thank you Michelle.” Clarke assured Michelle she did not mind in a hushed voice.

“Karyn, the doctor who saved me is back. I’ll see you as soon as you can get here my love.” Kathleen said her good-byes to her wife and handed Michelle back her phone, “thank you.” 

“Kathleen you’re looking much better. I would like you to get some sleep though, it’s almost three in the morning. Are you okay if we go back to your room and let Jasper take Tor, would that be okay?” Clarke was gentle and personable with Kathleen. 

Fresh tears graced Kathleen’s cheeks as she lifted Tor’s hand to her lips, “good-bye my friend. I will miss you. Karyn and I will take care of Suzanne and Reese, I promise.” She sealed her promise with a soft kiss to the back of Tor’s hand. 

Hearing Reese’s name reminded Clarke of the young girl with a simple barrette tucking her hair back. She knew what it was like to lose a father, her heart ached for Reese. Michelle pushed Kathleen’s wheelchair from the room, Clarke followed closely behind. She gave a passing glance as she walked back towards the nurse’s station. She needed to get out of here, she needed air. 

“Doctor Griffin, we’ll get the autopsy started as soon as possible. Doctor Ichs told me to let him sleep until after eight so it’ll be after that before I have any details for you.” Clarke really wished Jasper had not yelled such details, she did not need Kathleen hearing them and becoming even more upset. 

In trauma three Ugueth Urbina tried to maintain his composure and heart rate, an autopsy would certainly reveal the fact that the Captain had drowned, he’d much rather the doctors continue to think he’d died of hypothermia. He had to do something to stop his cover from being destroyed. 

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Clarke watched as Indra marched out of the conference room leaving everyone else in the dark. She walked towards the emptying room, she needed air, a release and only one person could grant her that, “Kane, can I have a minute?”

“What can I do for you Clarke?”

“May I have the key to the Cooley Center, I really need to clear my head.”

“Clarke, there’s a storm outside it’s not safe.”

“Please Kane, I’ll take someone with me and if the weather is too much we’ll turn back.”

Kane pulled the keys from his pocket and slowly twisted a key from the jumbled ring, handing the key to Clarke he gave his condition, “Lexa will accompany you, agreed?”

Clarke was puzzled as to how this woman she’d never seen before in the hospital had so quickly become known to everyone. “Agreed.” Clarke knew she needed to give Lexa a chance to explain and she figured there was no better place or time. At worst she’d become angrier giving her more energy to run, at best she’d hear a reasonable justification and would no longer be angry. Either way Lexa deserved a change to explain things. 

She took the key from Kane and walked towards Bellamy, before she left she wanted to win this bet.

“Hey Clarke, just heard you were attacked this morning, and that you conveniently forgot to tell me my sister was attacked and you were the one to stitch up her face.”

“We’re both fine Bellamy. Now about this bet.”

“Oh, you’re ready to make your choice.”

“Yep, I choose her,” Clarke pointed to Lexa.

“Okay, we can make that work, but since she’s assigned to guard you, you’re going to have to do more than get her attention.”

“What are you thinking?” Clarke questioned ignoring the “assigned to guard you part” of Bellamy’s declaration.

“Let’s keep is simple, a kiss, first one to get a kiss, wins,” Bellamy stuck out his hand, Clarke grasped his hand and shook it agreeing to his terms and solidifying the deal.

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“Hey Lexa, I’m going to go over to the Cooley Center I need to run, would you mind accompanying me?” Clarke’s voice was kind and soft, unlike the previous tone that had greeted Lexa. 

“Yes doctor.” Lexa needed to put up a wall, she needed to distance herself from her feelings, protecting Clarke was her assignment and she could not let her feelings get in the way.


End file.
